🎭Atropia (2025) — Alia Shawkat & Callum Turner Star in Hailey Gates’ Surreal War Satire on Love, Performance & Power

“In a world built on simulations, what happens when feelings become real?”

War, love, and illusion collide in Atropia (2025) — the hauntingly original feature debut from Hailey Gates, produced by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name).

Blurring the lines between performance and reality, this daring satire explores the absurdity of modern warfare through the eyes of an actress who falls in love inside a world designed to imitate conflict.

Starring Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, and Chloë Sevigny, Atropia premieres December 12, 2025, and is already generating festival buzz for its hypnotic storytelling and deeply layered critique of morality, identity, and role-playing.

🎬 The Story — When Pretend Becomes Painfully Real

In a fictional desert country called Atropia, soldiers, actors, and civilians perform scripted war scenarios for U.S. military training exercises.

Fayruz (Alia Shawkat), an aspiring actress desperate for work, joins the simulation to play a civilian caught in ongoing conflict. Her days are filled with fake bombings, scripted trauma, and choreographed propaganda.

But things take a turn when she meets Abu Dice (Callum Turner) — a “casted insurgent” whose performance is too convincing. Their forbidden connection begins as improvisation and spirals into something dangerously real.

As their emotions breach the walls of simulation, Fayruz and Abu’s romance threatens to unravel the carefully controlled illusion — and expose the military’s exploitation of emotion itself.

“The line between acting and living is thinner than a thread — and in Atropia, it’s ready to snap.”

💣 The Concept — A War That Isn’t Real, But the Pain Is

Hailey Gates’ Atropia takes inspiration from real U.S. military training facilities, where mock Middle Eastern villages are built for soldiers to rehearse combat scenarios.

In these places, civilians are actors. War is theater. Death is pretend.Until someone stops pretending.

The film turns this concept into a surreal and satirical love story — an unsettling reflection on how performance, politics, and power can intertwine until they’re indistinguishable.

🎭 Cast — Love, Lies, and Layers of Reality

Actor	Role	Description
Alia Shawkat	Fayruz	An aspiring actress playing a civilian in a simulated warzone who begins to lose herself in the role.
Callum Turner	Abu Dice	A soldier cast as an “insurgent,” whose connection with Fayruz blurs the line between enemy and lover.
Chloë Sevigny	Pina	A commanding officer turned showrunner of the simulation — manipulating life like a director.
Jane Levy	Nancy	A fellow performer struggling to separate trauma from theatrics.
Tim Heidecker	Hayden	A bureaucrat obsessed with maintaining control over chaos.
Tony Shawkat, Zahra Alzubaidi, Lola Kirke, and Tim Blake Nelson round out the ensemble in vivid supporting roles.

Even Channing Tatum makes a surprise uncredited cameo — as The Actor, a Hollywood celebrity filming propaganda inside Atropia.

🎥 Behind the Camera — Hailey Gates’ Stunning Directorial Debut

Directed and written by Hailey Gates, Atropia is equal parts war drama, black comedy, and romantic tragedy. Known for her work on The Face and Problemista, Gates channels the biting satire of Dr. Strangelove through the emotional intimacy of Lost in Translation.

Cinematographer Eric K. Yue (Shortcomings) crafts dreamlike visuals — sun-scorched landscapes, LED-lit barracks, and eerie theatrical sets that look both real and fake at once.

Music by Max Whipple, Ari Balouzian, and Robert Ames creates a soundscape that oscillates between haunting stillness and distorted chaos, amplifying the surreal tone.

Producer Luca Guadagnino describes Atropia as “a love story told inside a mirage — where emotion itself becomes the weapon.”

🌍 From Sundance to Theaters — The Journey of Atropia

After its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Atropia divided critics but fascinated audiences. Despite its polarizing tone, it won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition — a testament to its originality and vision.

Now, Vertical Entertainment is bringing Atropia to theaters across the U.S. on December 12, 2025, promising a cinematic experience unlike any other.

💬 Early Buzz — Love, War, and Existential Whiplash

Early festival reactions describe Atropia as:

⭐ “A stunningly strange anti-war fable about love and illusion.”

⭐ “Alia Shawkat delivers her career-best performance — raw, tragic, and electrifying.”

⭐ “A blend of Kubrick, Kaufman, and Guadagnino — unsettling yet beautiful.”

While some call it divisive, everyone agrees on one thing — Atropia demands to be seen and discussed.

🎞️ Release Details

🎬 Title: Atropia

📅 Release Date: December 12, 2025

🏆 Premiere: Sundance Film Festival, January 25, 2025

🎥 Director: Hailey Gates

🖋️ Writer: Hailey Gates

🎭 Starring: Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Chloë Sevigny, Jane Levy, Tim Heidecker

🏢 Distributed by: Vertical

⏱️ Runtime: 104 minutes

🌍 Language: English

🎭 Genre: Satirical Drama, War, Romance

❓ Atropia (2025) — FAQ

Q1. What is Atropia about?

An aspiring actress joins a military simulation facility and falls in love with a soldier cast as an enemy insurgent, sparking chaos when their emotions become real.

Q2. Who stars in the movie?

The film stars Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, and Chloë Sevigny, with supporting performances by Jane Levy and Tim Heidecker.

Q3. Who directed Atropia?

It’s written and directed by Hailey Gates, in her feature-length debut, produced by Luca Guadagnino.

Q4. When is the release date?

Atropia hits theaters on December 12, 2025.

Q5. What genre is it?

A war satire and romantic drama, blending surrealism with biting political commentary.

🕊️ Final Verdict

🔥 Verdict: ★★★★☆ (8.8/10)Atropia (2025) is a visually stunning and thematically daring debut — a surreal reflection on love, performance, and the absurd theatre of war. With commanding performances by Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner, and Hailey Gates’ poetic direction, it’s both unsettling and unforgettable.

“In Atropia, the war is fake — but the heartbreak is real.”

📅 In theaters December 12, 2025.