Coming from Melbourne-born director and writer Kitty Green, it's a fresh take on the outback thriller.
"Our remit for South by Southwest … is to profile up-and-coming from the Asia-Pacific region," says SXSW Sydney's Head of Screen, Ghita Loebenstein. "Here were two women that weren't going to put up with it, who weren't going to accept some of the behaviour that I had grown up learning to just go: 'Ah, he's alright.'"While flicks like Wolf Creek, Wake in Fright and The Nightingale defined the outback thriller genre with horrific scenes of murder, suicide and rape, Loebenstein's description of the Royal Hotel as "fun, irreverent energetic" may come as a surprise.
For Green, it's also about the specificity: The Royal Hotel isn't just set in the regions, but in a FIFO mining town, which are often home to little-to-no women — or rules.In filming, Green's team essentially "took over" a town of 29 people. Yatina in South Australia couldn't house everyone for the two weeks they filmed there, so they all shacked up in various surrounding towns.