Hotel Coolgardie

Out on the highway between Australia's most isolated city and it's largest gold pit lies Coolgardie, where the arrival every three months of a new pair of foreign female backpackers to work the only bar in town is keenly anticipated by the town's hot-blooded males. Fresh off the plane and attracted by the idea of an authentic outback experience, Finnish travel buddies Lina and Steph find themselves en route to a dot on the Western Australia map - to pour beers, replenish depleted travel funds and live amongst the locals. But their working holiday quickly deteriorates into a 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 simply serve drinks. Pete Gleeson's raucous, unflinching debut is a shocking, amusing and unexpectedly moving portrait of small-town insularity, fragile masculinity, and the plight of the outsider who must adapt or face the consequences.