Sundance 2025 Review: Atropia – “Full of clever, laugh-out-loud moments.”

A still from Atropia by Hailey Gates, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
The opening sequence of Atropia mirrors that of director Hailey Gates‘ 2019 short film Shako Mako. A woman walks down the dusty streets of a Middle Eastern town. She says hello to others she knows, but in the air lingers a feeling that something bad is about to happen. A U.S. army vehicle drives down the street, soldiers with guns by its side. An explosion lights up the street, and then the action is called to a standstill.
Because we really are not in 2006 Iraq, but instead inside ‘The Box’ – an immersive training area for soldiers, a place where they can learn the customs of the locals, try to speak the language and participate in specific drills. Close to Hollywood, this facility, currently the fictional country of Atropia, employs make-up artists, stunt coordinators and actors to make everything as realistic as possible. Some of the actors are even Iraqi! Says one of them, “We’re helping a group of teenagers to invade our homeland. In a gentler way.”
Such is the tone of Gates’ satire, produced by Luca Guadagnino, which is full of clever, laugh-out-loud moments, at least for the first half. I found myself charmed by the silly details, like the man pouring from a bottle of ‘burning flesh’ scent, or the introductory video for the soldiers that imparts on them drastic punishment if they bother the endangered desert tortoise indigenous to the area. It’s all a well-executed parody, as are the well-cast Chloë Sevigny and Tim Heidecker who play the higher-ups supervising this whole operation. Their indifference to the people in their care is palpable as they eat their flown-in Sushi away from those in the 24/7 simulation.
Our way into Atropia is through Fayruz (Alia Shawkat), a struggling actor who yearns to do more with her talent. She leans into the different roles she’s given, wanting to know their backstory, and teaching others to do more. She lies and manipulates to get ahead, and to get the juiciest parts. She might tell people that what she does helps to save lives once the soldiers are deployed overseas. But, it’s just all part of the act.
Just being in The Box would be enough to fill this satire. And the stories of the largely immature soldiers provide enough fodder to comment further on how the military uses these young men, and the toxic masculinity rife within their ranks. Yet Gates, also the writer, strays too far from the central premise.
There is a subplot involving a big Hollywood actor coming to ‘set’ that Fayruz wants to impress. The cameo is pretty entertaining, but then nothing comes of it. Through the second half of the film, there is an unnecessary romance inserted for Fayruz who, in the simulation, encounters a former soldier, played by Shawkat’s Green Room co-star Callum Turner. As a subplot, this might have been okay, but the entire film refocuses on this and loses any other plot entirely. Instead of continuing to lean into the satire it had set up so well, it ends up feeling more reserved as it goes on. Atropia just tries to do so much. Even scenes with Jane Levy, as a mock reporter for ‘Box News’, and Chloe East as a medic feel wasted as they’re packed into an already crowded space.
Initially, Gates had wanted to do this film as a documentary, spending time researching these truly existing simulated towns. I’d love to see THAT film, as I feel there is a lot to unpack about this military process. Yet, as a satire Atropia starts off with so much promise. There’s plenty of laughs to be had and it’s an entertaining watch. But, despite the terribly strong first half, the second meanders too much to live up to the expectations Gates so well establishes.
Atropia premiered January 25, 2025 at the Sundance Film Festival. Its remaining screenings both in person and online are sold out. More information on the film can be found here.