Atropia Trailer: Alia Shawkat Navigates the Struggles of War in Sundance Award-Winning Film

      Making its debut earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize, Hailey Benton Gates' first feature, *Atropia*, has taken a while to secure distribution. However, the satire produced by Luca Guadagnino, featuring a cast that includes Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Zahra Alzubaidi, Tony Shawkat, Jane Levy, Tim Heidecker, Lola Kirke, and Chloe Sevigny, will be released before the year's end. As Vertical prepares for a December 12 release, the first trailer has now been unveiled.

      Here’s the plot summary: “Welcome to Atropia: a fictional country established by the U.S. military to prepare soldiers for deployment. These mock towns—crafted by Hollywood set designers—are animated by role players hired to instill a sense of ‘authenticity.’ When an aspiring actress (Alia Shawkat) at a military role-playing center falls for a soldier (Callum Turner) portraying an insurgent, their genuine feelings risk disrupting the performance. What follows is a boldly comedic satire that probes the question: In the theater of war, who emerges as the victors and who as the defeated?”

      In his Sundance review, Jake Kring-Schreifels remarked, “*Atropia*, writer-director Hailey Gates’ partially successful satire of the War on Terror, does not hesitate to illustrate the mechanics behind it. It opens with a cliché sequence reminiscent of many Bush-era war dramas, depicting the bustling life of a busy Middle Eastern intersection as American troops patrol the streets. Abruptly, terrorists scatter, shout ‘Death to America,’ and attach IEDs to a car, which explodes, casting severed limbs and screams into the dense, dusty atmosphere. It’s a chilling moment until a loudspeaker announces ‘Cut,’ prompting everyone to break character and voice their concerns to a pyrotechnics crew about a fake donkey whose explosives failed to detonate.”

      Watch the trailer below.