Hard Bed Hotel

A humorous romance with a delightfully unexpected end.

 

A lovelorn cemetery caretaker is sure that a recent earthquake has just unearthed the ghost of Jhonny Pretty, Chile's famous 70s rockstar. He's Jhonny alright, but he's definitely not a ghost.

 

Astrid de las Nieves leads an unremarkable life in her job at Santiago's General Cemetery, where she has worked for decades cleaning tombs, watering flowers and conversing with the dearly departed. Nothing is out of the ordinary until the day that Jhonny Pretty's ghost silently glides past – to make Astrid's dream come true.

Although he's been reduced to singing for pennies at Slaughterhouse Square, Jhonny is very much alive. After the earthquake destroys his apartment, his only choice is to take up residence at the family mausoleum.

 

Astrid sets a plan in motion to seduce Jhonny's ghost and Jhonny plays along for all it's worth.

 

Perspective is skewed through the lens of desire. The thin line between the living and the dead is blurred, and nothing is as it seems – rockstar is ghostly indigent, pickpocket is tourism executive, shop owner is purveyor of saints, con artist is plastic surgeon and meddling ghost is guardian angel.

 

Everything goes wrong but maybe it's right, as heaven and earth settle into an unexpected juxtaposition in this twisted Latin tale that is doused with humor and magic realism.