Guest House Helios

2013 56 min

This film observes the day-to-day operations of a mid-century Croatian hotel in one of its final seasons before its scheduled closure and demolition, as the country prepares to enter the European Union. The film quietly observes how the hotel’s guests and workers engage within a structure of hospitality built upon the principles of Yugoslavian Socialism, long after its breakup. Resort hotels invite visitors to escape their jobs and daily routines on the premise that, in the act of leisure, people can be their authentic selves. For the hotel workers, the resort is their daily routine; nevertheless, glimpses of their authentic selves find pockets of escape. Hospitality is an economic livelihood for this Croatian island. But market forces require continuous expansion and growth, which in turn threaten the region’s cultural ‘authenticity’ through its consumption. Cultural specificity becomes a generic luxury good, increasingly out of reach for the middle class who once enjoyed it.

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