very strange U.S. military training grounds where role-players simulate foreign battlegrounds in order to prepare our troops for their time in the field, Hailey Gates' "Atropia" is hardly the ...

Set in 2006, Atropia takes place at the titular U.S. military training ground in the California desert, where actors role-play as villagers in countries where the government plans to invade.

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 ...

More a forced, one-note farce than the sharp satire it’s trying to be, “Atropia” is almost impressive ... tries her best to break free of the training exercise and find new opportunities ...

Although her plan to impress the famous actor fails, Fayruz meets Abu Dice (Turner), a private who just returned from a tour in Iraq and is now training at Atropia, through the process.

Like Gates’ short, “Atropia” opens with a near-identical ... Chloë Sevigny). Tongue-in-cheek training videos help quickly establish a wry tone that jabs in the direction of the mid-2000s ...

That vital and irreplaceable training is happening right here in Southwest Louisiana ... you are fighting by the time you enter Atropia." You've never heard of Atropia? Well, it's a fictitious country ...

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (Dec. 14, 2017) -- For years, Army units have fought for and liberated the fictitious country of Atropia ... as part of the Decisive Action Training Plan, this training scenario ...

He challenged her to write the script for “Atropia” in only four weeks ... but never fails to posture for the best “roles” in the training exercise (a bride whose wedding is raided ...