The village is small and dense, lined with collapsed structures and the explosive remains of cars. Women, hung to wash or sell American films on DVD out of dusty facts, are suspicious. The men are downright paranoid, running down alleyways or peering out of second-story windows. American forces patrol the area with assault rifles, where IEDs and chemical weapons await them. It’s a hellish war zone, and it’s completely fake.
This is Atropia, the fictional town named after a very real military training camp in the Nevada desert. He’s the subject of Hailey Gates’ new film of the same name, playing in competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, starring Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner.
“Growing up in Los Angeles, there was a lot of lore about these places. You could see them from the freeway,” Gates told them. diverse On the eve of the premiere of her debut feature. It was the same for Alia, who grew up in the palm desert. There is a huge naval base called Twentynine Palms where these villages are built. ”
The mock cities were built by the military and used extensively during the Iraq War, which began in 2003 and lasted eight years, to help soldiers acclimate to life in battle. Townspeople? Actors. IEDs? Mostly fog machines. Gates said the Defense Department even had a contract with Air Gradener Glade, which made scents that would mimic spiced tea, baked bread, fish markets, and, disturbingly, “burnt flesh.” Talk about the way to go.
Gates originally wanted to make a documentary about these camps. She spent nearly four years searching and eventually wanted a job as an actor on one of the complexes—gigs that last three weeks at a time, always in character.
“The Army wasn’t keen on the idea,” she said with a tight smile.
Instead, Gates has skillfully built a narrative around one of the most insane worlds we’ve ever seen on screen. Evocatively, it evokes “Argo,” a fetishized love story in the worst possible circumstances and, at times, a patriotic satire.
The director has spent years building a resume as a “bit actor” in projects like the rebooted “Twin Peaks” series, “Uncut Gems” and “Contravers.” She described it as a kind of gonzo school of cinema.
“I’ve always used it to get other director’s sets. When you shadow someone, it’s like being a eunuch at an orgy. There’s nothing you can do, per se, but you’re invited to their party,” Gates said.
And it’s paying off. Gates and Luca Guadagnino were friends for a few years before she arrived on the set of Rivals in Boston for a bit. He challenged her to write the script for “Atropia” in just four weeks.
“It was the most romantic writing experience because I was writing directly towards him,” she recalls. Gates and Shokat, both women who came of age during George W. Bush’s war, said they felt “voided out” in cinema regarding this particular moment in history. Creatively frustrated, they headed to the Palm Desert for a “one-day test shoot.”
“It wasn’t money and a group of friends, but it was very good,” Gates said. She shared the experience with Guadagnino, who had at that point read the script. He invited her and pledged to come on board as producer, saying in his glorious Italian accent: “Okay. We make Moo-Life“
Shokat plays a veteran of Atropia, nicknamed “The Box” by his cynical and censorious command officials. While its peers are today’s gamers, Shokat is always looking for its most authentic performance. She causes that her best work will not be perceived by wide audiences, but she never fails to place for the best “roles” in the training exercise (the bride whose wedding is trampled by the rebels, the chemist who spreads mustard gas). Callum, a new-on-the-box actress with an intensity to match or best her, hits base and ignites some of her other passions.
When production finally came together, Gates was thrown a curveball in the form of pregnancy forks in real life. She said the character required rewriting, and Shokat trusted Turner thanks to their 10-year-old friendship forged on the set of another rock sensation, “The Green Room.”
“There’s a scene with a really intense confrontation between Alya and Callum, and her son Bruno is just starting to move violently in her stomach,” Gates recalls. “I thought, ‘I’m blogging this baby already.’ “
It was a moment she doesn’t mind sharing the credit as she brings her baby to the Eccles Theater on Saturday.
“Bruno definitely directed some of these scenes,” she said.
