[Satire] Why Iraq War ‘Deserves Reexamining’: Atropia’s Alia Shawkat, Hailey Gates

Why Iraq War ‘deserves reexamining’: Atropia’s Alia Shawkat, Hailey Gates

"History isn’t repeating itself, but it’s rhyming," Alia Shawkat told Newsweek while talking about her new movie, Atropia.

Atropia Review: An Anti-War Farce That Can’t Sustain its Satire

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2025 Sundance coverage. Atropia opens in theaters on December 12. In the fictional country of Atropia, everything is played for real. Nestled into the southern California desert, the U.S. military-built training ground looks, acts, and even smells like an Iraqi city, populated by a plethora of actors pretending to be insurgents and merchants. The town––colloquially called “The Box,” one o…