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The Royal Hotel

Kitty Green  •   Australia/UK/USA  • ​  2023
91 mins  •  HD  •   R16 violence, offensive language & sexual material

Based on real-life events, Kitty Green’s savvy outback thriller finds two American backpackers signing up for a holiday job tending bar at an Australian pub in the middle of nowhere.

“Explosive. Subverts whatever expectations you might have about a thriller” – Indiewire

DIRECTOR: Kitty Green
PRODUCERS: Liz Watts, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Kath Shelpher

PRODUCTION CO: See Saw Films
​
SCREENPLAY: Kitty Green, Oscar Redding, based on the documentary Hotel Coolgardie directed by Pete Gleeson

PHOTOGRAPHY: Michael Latham
EDITOR: Kasra Rassoulzadegan

MUSIC: Jed Palmer
WITH: Julia Garner (Hanna), Jessica Henwick (Liv), Ursula Yovich (Carol), Hugo Weaving (Billy), James Frecheville (Teeth), Daniel Henshall (Dolly), Toby Wallace (Matty)​


​FESTIVALS: Telluride, Toronto

REVIEW

“Julia Garner (The Assistant) and Jessica Henwick (Glass Onion) star in a new thriller from director Kitty Green, about two young women who are put on the defensive when they arrive in a dusty mining town brimming with unfettered male aggression.

Hanna (Garner) and Liv (Henwick) are backpacking across Australia when they run out of money and are forced to take jobs at The Royal Hotel, a bar in the outback. They’re immediately confronted by the sea of rowdy men who fill the bar on a daily basis. There’s no varnish to their testosterone and while Billy (Hugo Weaving), the perpetually drunk owner of the pub, toes the line and pushes back on the men when they go too far, he’s also enabled their behaviour in the first place. Liv tries to brush off the advances, but this only makes Hanna more anxious, as she starts to worry about her friend’s safety in addition to her own. It’s soon clear that the longer the women stick around, the more likely this continual threat will catch up to them.

Following the success of her debut feature, The Assistant, Green continues her vivisection of the power dynamics between men and women, using a bigger canvas to examine the more explicit side of this coin. From the casting to the production design, the elements of Green’s film come together to create a suffocating atmosphere where blistering tension is found in each conversation and around every corner.”
– Toronto International Film Festival 2023


FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Bigger Picture Ōamaru  
Thursday, 03 April, 7.00pm

Nelson 

Wednesday, 23 April, 6.00pm

Tauranga
Wednesday, 14 May, 6.00pm

Dunedin  

Wednesday, 09 July, 7.30pm

Wellington  

Monday, 21 July, 6.15pm

Wellington  

Monday, 21 July, 8.30pm

Hamilton  
Monday, 22 September, 6.30pm

Whanganui  

Monday, 01 July, 6.30pm

Auckland  

Monday, 06 October, 6.15pm 

​New Plymouth 
Wednesday, 26 November, 6.00pm

Celebrate CONTEMPORARY CINEMA  >> 

Film Societies of Aotearoa New Zealand

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New Zealand Federation of Film Societies  |  PO Box 9544, Te Aro, Wellington, NZ  
Phone: +64 4 385 0162  |  Fax: +64 4 801 7304  |  Email: [email protected]
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • SOCIETIES
    • AUCKLAND
    • HAMILTON
    • TAURANGA
    • NEW PLYMOUTH
    • WHANGANUI
    • PALMERSTON NORTH
    • CARTERTON
    • WELLINGTON
    • NELSON
    • CANTERBURY
    • TIMARU
    • OAMARU
    • QUEENSTOWN
    • DUNEDIN
    • WESTPORT
  • 2025 SEASON
    • SWEDISH CINEMA
    • KUROSAWA
    • PECKINPAH'S WEST
    • COMEDY CORNER
    • GHOST STORIES
    • NZ FILM
    • RETRO CLASSICS
    • FRENCH CONNECTIONS
    • GERMAN CINEMA
    • WORLD CINEMA