Youkali Hotel

Country

Canada

Runtime

47 min

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A waitress at a rundown hotel bar in Northern Ontario becomes fascinated by an old unsolved murder of a cabaret singer. She starts imagining the story with herself as the singer, blending past and present.

melancholicmoodynostalgicdreamlikeslow-burnatmosphericreflectiveintriguing

What happens

Youkali Hotel is a Canadian television musical drama film, directed by David Mortin and broadcast by CBC Television in 2003. The film stars Patricia O'Callaghan as Trish, a waitress at a formerly opulent but now run down hotel bar in Northern Ontario, who learns about a mysterious unsolved murder of a cabaret singer that took place at the hotel in its glory days, and begins to imagine the story with herself as the singer. The film also features musical performances by Mary Margaret O'Hara, Hawksley Workman, Kurt Swinghammer and Albert Schultz, with numbers performed in the film including songs by Kurt Weill, Randy Newman, Rufus Wainwright and Elvis Costello. It was loosely based on O'Callaghan's own history of having worked as a waitress before attaining success as a singer and actress, with Youkali having been the title of her first album. Although set in Northern Ontario, it was actually filmed in the old Grant Hall hotel in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. The film received a private screening for cast and crew in Moose Jaw on November 26, 2003, before premiering on December 4 as an episode of CBC's Opening Night arts anthology series. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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