Hotel Kalura
The blurb: A woman holidays alone on the island of Sicily, waiting to get lit.
This is a bizarre, hallucinatory animation that is strangely compelling. The imagery is deliberately sexual and the whole scenario evokes feelings of sensuality, desire and fantasy. The director created the film during lockdown in 2020, hand-drawing the images and animating them in her closet.
According to Short Of The Week:
The inspiration for Gate’s animation came from a real-life moment during a “cheap trashy holiday with [her] best friend”. While staying at a hotel in Sicily, she noticed an older woman with striking red hair sitting alone, with a martini in hand, one evening. “I projected an entire life onto her,” Gate told S/W, “and found myself imagining what it was like to holiday alone after a divorce. I’m interested in the human brain’s ability to fantasise to the point where it disrupts reality. I also think there is a lot of anxiety around the malleability of desire. Romantic love for my main characters always ends in disaster at the fear of it becoming indifferent.”
Ottawa Animation Festival : Winner Best Technique
Indie Lisboa : Winner Best Animation
Jarman Award 2023 : Nominated
Screenings include:
Annecy, Edinburgh Film Festival, LIAF, Whitechapel Gallery, Zagreb
Length: 5:03
Director: Sophie Koko Gate
Year: 2021