A documentary set in an isolated outback town in Western Australia is highlighting the line between no-nonsense country locals and city blow-ins.

Hotel Coolgardie is an observational-style documentary capturing the experiences of two Finnish backpackers who take jobs at the only pub in the small mining town of Coolgardie, 500 kilometres east of Perth.

"Not quite sure what to expect," said one Coolgardie local who drove to nearby Kalgoorlie for the local premiere on Wednesday.

It was his first time at the Kalgoorlie cinema, and he was one of a number of Coolgardie locals who made the 40 kilometre trip.

Almost a year ago, the film screened at the Sydney Film Festival and the trailer in circulation at the time stirred up local criticism, with the shire president declaring he would not go out of his way to see it.

"Harangued by their new boss, relentlessly pursued and pilloried by booze-addle patrons and prey to madness and malaise of an environment as claustrophobic as it is isolated," read the synopsis of the film at the time.

But a year later, in the front rows of an unusually full Kalgoorlie cinema, Coolgardie residents were keen to see the final cut.

"Nah, she'll be all good mate," one local man said.

Trailer aims to 'spark attention'

Perth-based filmmaker Pete Gleeson said the snapshot of life in the town given in the trailer was intended to generate talk.

"The trailer is designed to, you know, spark people's attentions and that's kind of what it did," he said.

"What the trailer was doing was playing off that image we have of that kind of wild west, larrikin, outback feel."

But he said the trailer was just that — a trailer.

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"It's really hard to sum up the nuance of an entire film in a trailer," Mr Gleeson said.

"Once people are in there watching the film, we explore that a bit more."

He said he understood the apprehension that some people who lived in Coolgardie may feel without having seen the film.

"It's an interpretation, and it's the vision as seen through the eyes of two people who come and work at a particular time, in this particular place under particular circumstances," he said.

Not flattering to outback says Stratton

The town of Coolgardie, with its grand, but tired, facades, empty blocks of land and quiet streets, is far from the bustling WA gold capital it was in the late 1800s, once dubbed the mother of the Goldfields.

With a downturn in the mining industry, coupled with improved mining techniques and a rise in people working fly-in-fly-out rosters, the social fabric of small communities has suffered.

"I thought [the film] was funny in places, but really quite sad with the overall persona they were giving off," one woman said after the screening.

The film not only captures the experience of the two female backpackers at the centre of the story, but in scenes fuelled by alcoholic candour, it touches on an underlying sense of depression and loneliness among local men.

"It's quite an impressive piece of work, but also not a very flattering picture of the Australian outback," said renowned critic David Stratton, who gave the film four stars.

Reactions to film

While the film centres on the jarring experiences of the Finnish backpackers with often-drunk local men, there were many times during the screening when the Kalgoorlie cinema erupted with laughter.

As the story naturally evolves, unexpected characters surface in the story, and there are moments of affecting emotion between the backpackers and locals.

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"I was a bit sad, because it was never like that, I don't reckon. I was 18 when I was there and it wasn't that bad," one woman who grew up in Coolgardie said.

"I don't think it had to be quite as red-neck as it was made out," another man said after the screening.

"I think they've just gone a bit Australian, you know what I mean, a bit too much Australian.

"All the drinking, all the swearing, a little bit overboard."

However, others who had only seen the trailer had a new opinion after seeing the film.

"I thought it was going to be worse than what it was," one Goldfields woman said.

"There were some bits of it that were really good and showed the true people. It was a good mixture of emotions really."

Unique character of locals attracted filmmaker

Mr Gleeson said the unique, no-nonsense character of the people in the region, which attracted him in the first place, was what made the film what it was.

"People out in these areas, they don't really change for anyone, they're not going to change what they do for a couple of blow-ins with a camera," he said.

He reminded people that it was a film and by that very nature, it was only able to capture a limited perspective.

"You can't sum up anywhere at all, any town, by the views of two people, Mr Gleeson said.

"Everyone knows that the Goldfields is a pretty multi-faceted place, like anywhere."