THE ROYAL HOTEL

Hanna and Liv, two American backpackers, are out of money in Sydney. Liv talks Hanna into a job with accommodation: behind the bar of the “Royal Hotel”, a pub in a remote outback mining settlement. The landlord Billy (Hugo Weaving) drinks, and the regulars give the two women a loud introduction to Australian pub culture. Liv takes it as an adventure; Hanna senses from the start that something else lurks behind the banter. Matty courts her, Dolly watches her, and with every night the line of what the two women still have under control shifts. “The Royal Hotel” by Kitty Green, an Australian film from 2023, is a thriller whose threat is made of the everyday.

The Australian director Kitty Green, whose “The Assistant” told of quiet endurance, lets the anger break out here; Julia Garner, already the lead there, plays Hanna, and Jessica Henwick plays Liv. The screenplay, written with Oscar Redding, draws on Pete Gleeson’s documentary “Hotel Coolgardie” (2016), about two Finnish backpackers in a Western Australian pub. It premiered in Telluride in September 2023; nominated at the AACTA Awards for best film and for Garner as best lead actress. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2023.

Shown at the 2023 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2023 · Film Archive