Hotel Very Welcome

Hotel Very Welcome, Sonja Heiss’ Munich film school graduation project, is a fictional documentary which takes a bird’s-eye view and fly-on-the-wall approach to backpackers tramping the well-trodden paths of individual tourism in India and Thailand.

The camera accompanies five “typical” travellers as they search for the life exotic and themselves. Some seek their spiritual centre, others the next extreme sporting adventure, the best dope, the nearest open keg and the hippest beach party.

Director’s Statement:
“Travelling is a quest and in the best cases, one does not get lost, but finds something that was hidden from oneself back home. Often it becomes a comic and adventurous journey in which one desperately tries to be happy and relaxed in a place far from home. Hotel Very Welcome tells the story of the impossible mission to escape from the problems that are carried in one’s baggage. The characters never completely leave home: their own culture and personal existential issues guide their steps. It was very important for me to take the characters and their conflicts seriously and nevertheless portray them with lightness and in an affectionate, ironic way.”

Direction: Sonja Heiss; Screenplay: Sonja Heiss, Nikolai von Graevenitz; Cast: Chris O`Dowd, Eva Ricky Champ, Gareth Llewelyn, Eva Löbau, Svenja Steinfelder, Bruno Putzulu; Producers: Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade, Sonja Heiss; Language: German, English, Thai; Slovene subtitles.

Organisation: City of Women; Co-organisation: Kinodvor.