Graffiti-art legend Tarik Saleh’s debut feature is a chic, chilling, dystopian vision of a future in which corporate domination, market capitalism and urban sprawl hold society under total control and in an anxious state of (self-)surveillance. In a bleakly beautiful 2024, call-center drone Roger Olafson (Vincent Gallo) begins hearing a voice inside his head that leads him to step out of his dull routine and into a world of would-be espionage as he unwittingly stumbles upon secret plans and dastardly subterfuge at the center of his universe. Working with renowned art director Martin Hultman, Saleh utilizes a hyperrealistic animation style—initially developed for Swedish television—that defies conventional description. Using photomontage as its basis, the uncanny and unnerving technique has been described by one critic as the way “Kafka would have painted the Last Supper.” Saleh’s singular aesthetic lends itself perfectly to his theme of rampant paranoia and conspiracy. Having garnered big buzz at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Metropia is a haunting, devastatingly gloomy thriller further enlivened by the voices of Gallo, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier and Juliette Lewis.

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West Coast Premiere. Written by Stig Larsson, Fredrik Edin, Tarik Saleh. Photographed by Sesse Lind. With Vincent Gallo, Juliette Lewis, Udo Kier, Stellan Skarsgård, Alexander Skarsgård, Sofia Helin. (86 minutes, Swedish Film Institute)