There’s an inherent farce to the U.S. government, or so Hailey Gates suggests in her debut feature film, Atropia. Based on her 2019 short film Shako Mako, Gates expands her exploration of fake towns ...

Sundance project: Gates is the writer and director of "Atropia," starring Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Chloë Sevigny and Tim Heidecker. The movie, which is produced by Luca Guadagnino ...

When production finally did come together, Gates was thrown a curveball in the form of Shawkat’s pregnancy in real life. The character required rewriting, she said, and Shawkat trusted Turner ...

Weaving absurdism and romance, “Atropia” interrogates the Western perspective of the Middle East. Directed by Hailey Gates, ...

Hailey Gates’ feature debut has fun, insightful ideas, though it seldom expands on them. Like Gates’ short, “Atropia” opens with a near-identical scene of an Iraqi woman played by Alia ...

Notable past credits: As an actor, Gates has appeared in films like “Challengers” — which is how she connected with Guadagnino — and “Uncut Gems.” She hosted the Viceland series ...

Sundance project: Gates is the writer and director of “Atropia,” starring Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Chloë Sevigny and Tim Heidecker. The movie, which is produced by Luca Guadagnino, is a feature ...