Motel Destino18

Directed by Karim Aïnouz | Brazil | 2024 | 1h 55m | Portuguese w/ English subtitles | Starring Iago Xavier, Nataly Rocha, Fábio Assunção, Renan Capivara, Fabiola Liper

At a roadside sex hotel in northern Brazil, the arrival of a young gang member on the run turns the daily routine of its fiery owners and eccentric residents upside down. Beneath glowing neon lights and under the scorching blue skies, a tense and seductive game of desire, power, and violence begins to unfold. This steamy, erotic neo-noir is written and directed by Cannes award-winning filmmaker Karim Aïnouz (The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão).

Reviews

‘A film dripping with desire, danger, and urgency, all very welcome. A film that grows on you the more you tear it apart’
★★★★
Rafa Sales Ross, Little White Lies

‘This film is terrifically acted by its central trio: three intensely and unselfconsciously physical performances in which their bodies are frequently on show, sensual but fragile.’
★★★★
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed Motel Destino between May 30, 2025 and June 3, 2025.

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What else is on?

Today (Thursday 2nd April)

12:00

Sinners 15
Parent + Baby Club
2h 18m
Twin brothers seek a fresh start in their 1930s Southern hometown but uncover an evil lurking beneath the surface. Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan reunite for this chilling supernatural thriller set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow-era South.

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15:00

The President's Cake 12A
1h 45m | Arabic w/ English subtitles
During 1990s Iraq, schoolgirl Lamia is chosen by her class to bake a birthday cake for Saddam Hussein. With her pet rooster beside her she searches the town for ingredients in an award-winning debut about childhood resilience and life under dictatorship.

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17:45

Sirāt 15
1h 54m | Spanish, French & Arabic w/ English subtitles
Oliver Laxe’s intense, hallucinatory road movie follows a father and son through Morocco as they try to find a missing relative at various sprawling, illegal raves. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival 2025.

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20:30

Sound of Falling 18
2h 35m | German w/ English subtitles
Across the twentieth century four teenage girls spend their youth in the same farmhouse decades apart, yet their lives echo each other. German director Mascha Schilinski interweaves generations of girlhood, revealing loneliness and lost innocence across a turbulent century.

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Tomorrow (Friday 3rd April)

15:45

Midwinter Break 12A
Descriptive Subtitles
1h 30m
Long-married couple Stella and Gerry holiday in Amsterdam when buried tensions surface, forcing them to confront their past and uncertain future. Starring Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds, Polly Findlay’s debut adapts Bernard MacLaverty’s novel into a moving meditation on love.

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18:00

The Love That Remains 15
1h 49m | Icelandic w/ English subtitles
Anna and Magnús raise three children in rural Iceland, but cracks in their marriage begin to appear. Acclaimed director Hlynur Pálmason (Godland) crafts a warm and quietly humorous portrait of family life unfolding across seasons of the vast Icelandic landscape.

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20:30

Hamnet 12A
2h 6m
Shakespeare and his wife endure the devastating loss of their young son, straining love and family bonds. Chloé Zhao’s (Nomadland) poignant adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel captures grief, creativity, and resilience, with moving performances by Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.

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Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!