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The Royal Hotel

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Hanna (Julia Garner) is backpacking across Australia with her best friend Liv (Jessica Henwick). Running low on funds, they decide that a job tending bar in an Outback mining town might be a lark — the job comes with free lodging, after all, and not a little booze. The owner, Billy (Hugo Weaving) does his best to keep the rowdy regulars in order, but then again he’s always drunk himself. Beer culture in a place like this is always going to be a wild ride, but the young women have no idea just how quickly the bottom can drop out of their world. This deeply unsettling film is inspired by a true story — or, more accurately, many true stories. Director and co-writer Kitty Green comes from a documentary background and just as she did with her acclaimed 2019 #MeToo drama The Assistant (also with Julia Garner), Green exactingly grounds the material in the real world. But that’s not to say this cautionary tale is anything less than gripping. Expect a vertiginous decline in Australian tourism.

A masterfully constructed pressure cooker about the perils of being a woman… Few movies have ever so palpably or intricately conveyed the violent pall of male attention.
David Ehrlich, Indiewire

Director
Cast

Jessica Henwick, Julia Garner, Hugo Weaving, Bree Bain, Toby Wallace

Credits
Country of Origin

Australia/UK

Year

2023

Series

Showcase

Language

English

Content Warning

Sexual Violence

18+

At The Park

19+

At The Rio

91 min
Drama Women Directors

Book Tickets

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Credits

Executive Producer

Simon Gillis

Producer

Emile Sherman, Liz Watts, Iain Canning, Kath Shelper

Screenwriter

Kitty Green, Oscar Redding

Cinematography

Michael Latham

Editor

Kasra Rassoulzadegan

Production Design

Leah Popple

Original Music

Jed Palmer

Director

Kitty Green headshot

Kitty Green

Kitty Green was born in Melbourne. Her works include the documentaries Ukraine is Not a Brothel (2013) and Casting JonBenet (2017), as well as the narrative feature The Assistant (2019).

Filmography: Ukraine is Not a Brothel (2013); Casting JonBenet (2017); The Assistant (2019)

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