Metropia (film)

Metropia
Directed by	Tarik Saleh
Produced by	Kristina Åberg
Written by	Screenplay: Tarik Saleh Stig Larsson Fredrik Edin Story: Tarik Saleh Fredrik Edin Martin Hultman
Starring	Vincent Gallo Juliette Lewis
Music by	Krister Linder
Editing by	Johan Söderberg
Studio	Atmo Media Network Boulder Media Limited
Distributed by	Sandrew Metronome
Release date(s)	Venice Film Festival: 3 September 2009 Sweden: 27 November 2009
Running time	86 minutes
Country	Sweden Denmark Norway Finland
Language	English
Budget	34,000,000 SEK

Metropia is a 2009 Swedish adult animated science-fiction film directed by Tarik Saleh. 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 actual photographs have been altered and heavily stylized in a computer program, and then animated.^[1] The visual style is inspired by the works of Terry Gilliam, Roy Andersson and Yuriy Norshteyn.^[2]

Synopsis

A futuristic look at a terrifying Europe where the world is running out of oil. A gigantic underground network is created by joining all the various undergrounds together underneath 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. In order to break free he combines forces with super-model Nina (Juliette Lewis).

Cast

• Vincent Gallo as Roger
• Juliette Lewis as Nina
• Udo Kier as Ivan Bahn
• Stellan Skarsgård as Ralph Parker
• Alexander Skarsgård as Stefan
• Sofia Helin as Anna
• Shanti Roney as Karl
• Fares Fares as Firaz
• Fredrik Eddari as Mehmet
• Doreen Månsson as asylum TV-hostess
• Indy Neidell as Wayne Marshal
• 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
• Sandy Månsson as office gossip
• Michael Månsson as old man buying ticket
• Jon Wigfield as annoying customer

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.^[3] Co-producers include Denmark's Zentropa and Norway's Tordenfilm, and with support from the Council of Europe's film fund Eurimages, the film had a budget of around 34 million SEK.^[4][5]

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.^[2] Vincent Gallo accepted his part as the lead voice actor after having seen 30 seconds of finished animation as well as hearing that German actor Udo Kier, of whom Gallo was a fan, already was attached to the project.^[5]

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, and animated in Adobe After Effects under lead animator Isak Gjertsen.^[2] Animation was done in Trollhättan, as the first production to use Film i Väst's newly started animation studio.^[3] The production took two years to finish.^[5]

Release

The film premiered on 3 September 2009 at the Venice Film Festival, opening up the festival's Critic's Week but shown out of competition.^[6]

American Release

The movie will be released in late 2012 in North America and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The movie will be Rated R for restricted in North America.

References

1. ^ Geistrand, Moa (2008-07-26) "Världen rämnar i 2D – och en halv" (in Swedish). Sydsvenskan. Retrieved on 2009-06-06.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Skawonius, Betty (2008-01-20) "Storebror styr dig i Metropia" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved on 2009-05-30.
3. ^ ^{a b} (2008-02-02) "Metropia inviger ny animationsstudio" (in Swedish). Film i Väst. Retrieved on 2009-05-30.
4. ^ Metropia fact sheet (PDF). Swedish Film Institute. Retrieved on 2009-07-25.
5. ^ ^{a b c} Hagberg, Jennifer (2008) "Metropia' har fångat Hollywoodeliten" (in Swedish). Svt.se. Retrieved on 2009-05-30.
6. ^ Jennings, Shere (2009-07-23) "Eurocentric Venice Critics' Week to present Berlusconi project Videocracy." Screen Daily. Retrieved on 2009-07-25.

External links

• Official website
• The Art of Metropia
• Metropia at the Internet Movie Database
• Metropia trailer on YouTube