‘Atropia’: Sundance Review

Dir/scr: Hailey Gates. US. 2025. 103 minutes

Hailey Gates’ formidable debut characteristic Atropia is filled with comedian potential that’s by no means fairly realised. The combination of battle video games satire, deadpan farce and candy romance supplies amusement alongside the best way with out reducing as deep because it typically guarantees. The dedicated performances of Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner plus the Sundance US Grand Jury prize ought to assure consideration for an uneven however usually partaking  enterprise.

A sitcom sensibility with its simple targets and predictable punchlines

Gates units the scene with a wry remark from Ambrose Bierce in 1875 that “Struggle is God’s method of instructing Individuals geography.”  An actor in Uncut Gems (2019) and Challengers (2024), Gates has Luca Guadagnino on board as a producer for her feature-length directorial debut. Her brief Shako Mako (2019), additionally starring Alia Shawkat, units the template for the opening scenes of Atropia. It’s 2006. Carrying a basket of bread, a lady navigates the slim alleys of a sand-blown village stuffed with menace. An explosion is adopted by wails of anguish as residents scream “Dying to America”. Somebody stops the scene as a tool has did not detonate and we realise it has all been an phantasm, suggesting hints of The Truman Present (1998), Westworld (1973) and others. The fact is a 600-acre website in California containing a mock village used to check real looking battle scene eventualities earlier than American troopers are deployed to Iraq.

The residents of ‘Atropia’ are all actors, paid to make that phantasm as genuine as attainable. None of them take it extra significantly than Shawkat’s Fayruz Abbas. She treats the duty like a continuing audition and has gone full Paula Strasberg as a demanding appearing coach to the others.

Fictional nation Atropia (shades of Duck Soup’s Freedonia) is a model of one thing that truly exists. On the finish of the movie we be taught that some 200 mock villages are used all through America to coach troops. Right here the village is named Medina Wasl and is about in an space dubbed The Field by the navy. Predictably, their media channel is named Field Information. Gates secures some laughter from the innocence and incompetence of the nervous recruits, the callous indifference of their navy superiors and normal attitudes to battle. Shallow and apparent in locations, it flirts with unhealthy style all through and shows a  sitcom sensibility with its simple targets and predictable punchlines. Among the materials would additionally not appear misplaced in a comedy sketch present.

Two vital occasions change the course of journey as Fayruz learns {that a} main film star (performed by a good-sport uncredited A-lister) is coming to Atropia as a part of his analysis for a brand new position. The chance to impress a Hollywood bigwig is unimaginable to withstand however only a throwaway notion within the normal hodge podge of concepts. The A-lister does return in a post-credits scene. Extra considerably, Fayruz meets Abu Cube (Turner), an American service veteran now forged as an rebel chief and ready to take the video games as significantly as her. 

Shawkat’s vigorous, witty efficiency and Turner’s appeal work onerous to encourage our funding within the blossoming romance between Fayruz and Abu Cube and the dilemmas they face. Among the their most romantic moments are set in opposition to stunning desert backdrops warmly captured by cinematographer Eric Okay. Yue ( I Noticed The TV Glow). The connection is just not with out its attraction nevertheless it pushes the movie in the direction of extra standard territory.  Later, archive footage underlines the realities of America’s tour into Iraq below President George W. Bush. Gates’ earnest steer in the direction of political commentary and poignancy is well-intentioned  nevertheless it doesn’t really feel as if the movie has earned that privilege.