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The Hotel

Wang Xiaoshuai
filmfestival
Sat 22 Apr 23 - Fri 28 Apr 23

The first days of the 2020 lockdown seem endless for a group of Chinese tourists stuck in a Thai hotel. Emotional complications, tensions and longstanding secrets reach the surface.

This film is set in a hotel in the Thai city Chiang Mai. When the COVID-19 pandemic strikes, three Chinese pairs are stuck there: a couple whose marriage is ending, a mother with her daughter and a blind man with his companion. They have one thing in common: they’re all looking for love.

 

With ‘The Hotel’, the director delivers a real masterpiece. The scenario of the black-and-white film is artistically constructed. Twenty-year-old Sova is the binding factor, bringing all the different storylines together. The dialogue is fierce, the highlight being the conversation between the husband and the wife, where the wife assesses their relationship and covertly criticises the Chinese system.

direction
Wang Xiaoshuai
cast
Yuanyuan Ning, Huang Xiaolei, Qu Ying, Jun Dai
duration
113 min
year
2022
country
China
language
Chinese
Subtitles
English, Dutch

With surgical precision, ‘The Hotel’ captures an atmosphere of entrapment, confusion, apathy, growing frustration and unrestrained sexual desire.