The village is small and dense, lined with crumbling structures and the exploded remains of cars. The women, hanging laundry or selling American movies on DVD out of dusty briefcases, are suspicious. The men are outright paranoid, ducking down alleys or peering out of second-story windows. American troops patrol the area with assault rifles, where IEDs and chemical weapons await them. It’s a hellish war zone, and it’s entirely fake.
This is Atropia, the fictional town named after a very real military training camp in the Nevada desert. It’s the subject of Hailey Gates’ new film of the same name, playing in competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival,
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