''Metropia'' is a 2009 English-language

adult animated An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

science fiction film directed by

Tarik Saleh Tarik Saleh ( ar, طارق صالح; born 28 January 1972) is a Swedish television producer, animator, publisher, journalist and film director. He was born in Högalids församling, Stockholm to a Swedish mother and an Egyptian father. In th ...

. The screenplay was written by Fredrik Edin, Stig Larsson, and Tarik Saleh after a story by Tarik Saleh, Fredrik Edin and Martin Hultman. The film uses a technique where photographs have been altered and heavily stylized in a computer program, and then animated. The visual style is inspired by the works of

Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...

, Roy Andersson and

Yuri Norstein Yuri Borisovich Norstein, PAR (russian: link=no, Ю́рий Бори́сович Норште́йн; born 15 September 1941) is a Soviet and Russian animator best known for his animated shorts '' Hedgehog in the Fog'' and '' Tale of Tales''. Sin ...

.Skawonius, Betty (2008-01-20)
Storebror styr dig i Metropia
(in Swedish). ''

Dagens Nyheter ''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record. History and profile ' ...

''. Retrieved on 2009-05-30. ''Metropia'' was co-produced by Atmo Media Network and

Lars von Trier Lars von Trier ('' né'' Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish filmmaker, actor, and lyricist. Having garnered a reputation as a highly ambitious, polarizing filmmaker, he has been the subject of several controversies: Cannes, in addition to nomina ...

's Danish production company Zentropa Entertainments, premiered at the

66th Venice International Film Festival The 66th annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was held from 2 to 12 September 2009, with Maria Grazia Cucinotta serving as the festival's hostess. The opening film of the festival was '' Baarìa'' by Giuseppe Torn ...

, and opened in Sweden on 27 November 2009.

Plot

In a future Europe the world is running out of oil. A gigantic

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

network is created by joining all the undergrounds together beneath Europe. Roger (Vincent Gallo), from a suburb of Stockholm, avoids the underground because he finds it disturbing. Sometimes when he is too near the underground he hears a strange voice in his head. One day Roger stumbles upon the truth that his life is controlled in every detail. Trexx, the company that runs the mammoth European rail network, has found a way to read and control minds using the dandruff shampoo "Dangst", with the goal of creating a highly efficient advertising system. In order to break free, Roger joins forces with super-model Nina (Juliette Lewis), the former model and spokeswoman for Dangst.

Cast

Vincent Gallo Vincent Gallo (born 1961) is an American actor and director. He has had supporting roles in films such as ''Arizona Dream'' (1993), ''The House of the Spirits'' (1993), ''Palookaville'' (1995), and '' The Funeral'' (1996). His lead roles include ...

as Roger * Juliette Lewis as Nina *

Udo Kier Udo Kierspe (born 14 October 1944), known professionally as Udo Kier, is a German actor. Known primarily as a character actor, Kier has appeared in more than 220 films in both leading and supporting roles throughout Europe and the Americas. He h ...

as Ivan Bahn *

Stellan Skarsgård Stellan Skarsgård (, ; born 13 June 1951) is a Swedish actor. He is known for his collaborations with director Lars von Trier appearing in ''Breaking the Waves'' (1996), ''Dancer in the Dark'' (2000), '' Dogville'' (2007), ''Melancholia'' (201 ...

as Ralph Parker *

Alexander Skarsgård Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård (; born August 25, 1976) is a Swedish actor. Born in Stockholm, he began acting at age seven but quit at 13. After serving in the Swedish military, Skarsgård returned to acting and gained his first role in th ...

as Stefan *

Sofia Helin Sofia Margareta Götschenhjelm-Helin (born 25 April 1972) is a Swedish actress. She was nominated for a Guldbagge Award for her role in ''Dalecarlians'', and stars as Saga Norén in the Danish/Swedish co-produced TV series '' The Bridge'' (Danish ...

as Anna *

Shanti Roney Shanti Grau Roney (born 24 November 1970) is a Swedish actor. While his film credits include nearly twenty movies, most of these have been limited to a domestic or Scandinavian release. One notable exception is Lukas Moodysson's film ''Together'' ...

as Karl *

Fares Fares Fares Fares (; born 29 April 1973) is a Swedish-Lebanese actor of Assyrian descent. Early life Fares was born in Beirut, Lebanon. His younger brother is director Josef Fares, and he has four sisters. In 1987, when Fares was 14 years old, his ...

as Firaz * Joanna Zofia Bard Mikolajczyk as metro voice * Goran Marjanovic as asylum seeker * Magnus Skogberg Tear as Roger's boss * Lotta Bromé as news anchor * Annelie Persson as Trexx Commercial *

Indiana Neidell Indiana "Indy" Neidell (born 28 September 1967) is an American-Swedish documentarian, historian, actor, voice actor, musician and YouTube personality, best known for presenting the video series, ''The Great War'' on '' The Great War Channel'' whi ...

as Wayne Marshal

Production

The story and supporting material were developed by Stockholm-based Atmo during a period of four years before the actual animation work had begun.(2008-02-02)
Metropia inviger ny animationsstudio
" (in Swedish).

Film i Väst Film i Väst (English: "Film in West") is a film company located in Trollhättan, Sweden, nicknamed "Trollywood"), founded in 1992 by the Älvsborg County Council. Lars von Trier used its facilities in his movies, such as ''Dogville'' and ''Mand ...

. Retrieved on 2009-05-30. Co-producers include Denmark's

Zentropa Zentropa, or Zentropa Entertainments, is a Danish film company started in 1992 by director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen. Zentropa is named after the train company Zentropa in the film ''Europa'' (1991), which started the colla ...

and Norway's Tordenfilm, and with support from the Council of Europe's film fund

Eurimages Eurimages is a cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, established in 1989. Eurimages promotes independent filmmaking by providing financial support to feature-length fiction, animation, and documentary films. In doing so, it encourages ...

, the film had a budget of around 34 million SEK.Hagberg, Jennifer (2008)
Metropia' har fångat Hollywoodeliten
" (in Swedish). Svt.se. Retrieved on 2009-05-30. Ordinary people spotted on the streets were used as models for the characters. The main character Roger is based on a chef who worked at a restaurant in Stockholm where the Atmo employees were regulars, and Nina was found in a make-up store.

accepted his part as the lead voice actor after having seen 30 seconds of finished animation as well as hearing that German actor

, of whom Gallo was a fan, already was attached to the project. After a story board had been developed, photographer Sesse Lind travelled around Europe and took pictures of needed locations in Stockholm, Berlin, Paris and Copenhagen. The photographs were edited in

Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...

and animated in

Adobe After Effects Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc., and used in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. Among other things, After Eff ...

under lead animator Isak Gjertsen. Animation was done in

Trollhättan Trollhättan () is the 23rd-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Trollhättan Municipality, Västra Götaland County. It is situated by Göta älv, near the lake Vänern, and has a population of approximately 50,000 in the city proper. It is loc ...

as the first production to use

's newly started animation studio. The production took two years to finish.

Release

The film premiered on 2 September 2009 at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

, opening up the festival's Critic's Week but shown out of competition.Jennings, Shere (2009-07-23)
Eurocentric Venice Critics' Week to present Berlusconi project Videocracy
" '' Screen Daily''. Retrieved on 2009-07-25.

Awards

References

External links

The Art of ''Metropia''
* * * {{Tarik Saleh 2009 films 2009 animated films 2009 computer-animated films 2009 drama films 2009 science fiction films 2000s thriller drama films Animated drama films Animated thriller films Danish animated science fiction films Films directed by Tarik Saleh Norwegian animated science fiction films Swedish animated speculative fiction films Swedish thriller films English-language Danish films English-language Norwegian films English-language Swedish films Dystopian films 2000s English-language films 2000s Swedish films Zentropa films Adult animated films