The Royal Hotel

Wednesday 9 July at 7.30pm

Kitty Green | Australia/UK/USA | 2023 | 91 mins | 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.

“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.”—Toronto International Film Festival 2023