A new trailer has dropped for Atropia, the feature directorial debut of filmmaker and journalist Hailey Benton Gates, and it’s every bit as provocative, surreal, and darkly funny as its premise suggests. Written and directed by Gates, and produced by Naima Abed, Emilie Georges, Luca Guadagnino, Lana Kim, and Jett Steiger, Atropia stars Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Zahra Alzubaidi, Tony Shawkat, Jane Levy, Tim Heidecker, Lola Kirke, and Chloë Sevigny. The film will hit theaters on Friday, December 12, with an expanded rollout planned for January 2026. Set in a fictional country fabricated by the U.S. military, Atropia takes place in one of several hyperreal “simulation towns” used to train American soldiers before deployment. These uncanny, made-to-look-real environments, complete with extras, props, and fake insurgents, are designed to immerse soldiers in the chaos of war without ever leaving U.S. soil. In Gates’ hands, that bizarre premise becomes the backdrop for a biting, genre-bend...