At a remote pub, on a dusty highway between Australia’s most isolated city and its largest gold pit, the arrival every three months of a new pair of foreign backpackers to work the bar is a keenly anticipated event. Fresh off the plane and attracted by the idea of an authentic outback experience, Finnish travellers Lina and Steph find themselves en route to a dot on the map – to pour beers, replenish depleted travel funds, and live amongst the locals. But their working holiday quickly deteriorates into a bizarre test of endurance. Harangued by their new boss, relentlessly pursued and pilloried by booze-addled patrons, and prey to the madness and malaise of an environment as claustrophobic as it is isolated – the girls soon realise that to meet expectations out here, they’ll need to do more than just serve drinks.
Sometimes humorous, often shocking, Hotel Coolgardie is a raw, wryly-observed journey into an outback Australia rarely depicted on screen.