Hotel Very Welcome

Making her directorial debut, filmmaker Sonja Heiss melds light comedy with wry observation for an incisive tale about five privileged young Europeans backpacking in Asia. Told in alternating narrative strands, HOTEL VERY WELCOME separately follows the quintet -- who have trekked East for enlightenment, escape or ecstasy -- as they encounter scheduling snafus, dwindling bank accounts, cultural confusion and other mundane frustrations they had hoped to avoid when they initially left home. "An episodic charmer … neatly played" -- Variety.