Hotel Kalura
A middle-aged woman waits for someone to light her cigarette and set her world on fire.
If I had to describe Hotel Kalura in one word, it would be sultry – in the same way a late-night jazz solo feels after one too many cocktails: surreal, stylish, and smouldering with seduction.
Directed by Sophie Koko Gate (Slug Life), this five-minute animation is drenched in concentrated sensuality, where every hand-drawn frame oozes desire. Erotic imagery is vividly brought to life through an evocative, tactile sound design, transforming the film into an acid dream that’s as alluring as it is unsettling. It’s the kind of dream you’re not sure you should be having, but one you don’t want to wake up from.
Hotel Kalura follows a middle-aged woman as she makes her way to a hotel bar, where a mysterious figure lights her cigarette and ignites a spark. As the evening unfolds, the two navigate a feverish dance of flirtation and desire, their physical connection deepening amid a surreal backdrop that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. Created in a tiny makeshift studio – which Gate made by cutting a hole into the side of a wardrobe – during lockdown, Hotel Kalura is a love letter to the medium of 2D animation. Pushing her signature glossy, airbrushed aesthetic to its limits, the result is a visually vibrant world, saturated with rich colours and fuzzy textures.
“Romantic love for my main characters always ends in disaster” – Gate discussing the reoccurrence of love in her storylines.
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.”
Hotel Kalura is less a conventional narrative and more an exploration of hypnotic, longing – told through texture, gesture, and sound. Glistening eyes shimmer with lust, while the exaggerated and distorted shapes of body parts feel both organic and alien. Throughout the film, sexual metaphors lurk in plain sight: a finger sinks deeply into a hole in the lift, a volcano erupts – each moment layered with symbolic charge. The sound design, both surreal and sensual, blurs the gender signifiers and swells with every touch and groan – deep, resonant tones that amplify the visuals and vibrate through your own skin. The result is a film that embodies sexual desire, drawing you into a world where pleasure, identity, and fantasy dissolve into one feverish, unforgettable hallucination.
Sophie Koko Gate isn’t just a storyteller – she’s a master at capturing the smallest moments and transforming them into something electrifying. In her world, a single act, like the lighting of a cigarette, can spark an entire erotic universe, and honestly, who wouldn’t want to get lost in it?
