Based on her 2020 short “Shako Mako,” Hailey Gates writes and directs “Atropia,” a unique war satire about western views of the Middle East. While both its lampooning of U.S. militarism ...

The Army talks a big game about Atropia being as realistic as possible (it even comes with its own competing TV networks, Box News and a fake Al-Jazeera), but "The Truman Show" it ain't.

plotting her escape from a simulated war zone at an army base camp by secretly recording audition tapes for casting agents. In Atropia, Gates, who also wrote the screenplay, includes a hampering ...