Hotel Diana

Rebellious teenager Deniz runs away from home and finds herself at a run-down beach resort, The Hotel Diana, whose curious inhabitants, including hotel owner Diana and trans performer Samira, take her on a journey of self-discovery, where she learns that every freedom comes at a price.

The debut feature of Azeri-born writer, director and producer, Suad Gara, Hotel Diana is a bitter-sweet coming of age story set in the beach front hotels on the outskirts of Baku. Suad says: “Gender plays a big part in this film, but also for me personally. I want to make space for all forms of womanhood, the strong, the sensual, the natural and the one achieved through difficult personal sacrifice, the reserved, the confident and the undecided. In societies such as ours, where the most common female experience is that of struggle, I want to unite the three female characters without judgement or differentiation. In this strange place, reminiscent of hotels in Sean Baker’s THE FLORIDA PROJECT and Wim Wenders’s THE MILLIION DOLLAR HOTEL, where they each happen to arrive on their own, Deniz, Diana and Samira will come together in their shared femininity, understanding and power.”