Director – Tarik Saleh, Screenplay – Frederik Edin, Stig Larsson & Tarik Saleh, Based on an idea by Frederik Edin, Martin Hultman & Tarik Saleh, Producer – Kristina Aberg, Photography – Sesse Lind, Music – Krister Linder, Animation Director – Christian Ryltenius, Art Direction – Martin Hultman. Production Company – Atmo/Film I Vast/Sandrew Metronome/Swedish Television (SRT)/Tordenfilm/Zentropa Entertainments5.
Voices
Vincent Gallo (Roger Olofsson), Juliette Lewis (Nina Swartzcruit), Udo Kier (Ivan Bahn), Alexander Skarsgård (Stefan Ljung), Stellan Skarsgård (Ralph Parker), Sofia Helin (Anna Svensson)
Plot
The year 2024. Europe is now connected by a vast rail network known as The Metro, built by The Trexx Group. In Stockholm, call centre worker Roger Olofsson begins to hear voices in his head. One day, instead of going to work, Roger heads down into The Metro. He follows Nina Swartzcruit, a girl that he recognises from the Dangst shampoo commercial and believes to be his dream girl. She leads him underground where she promises to show him what is behind the voices in his head – how the Trexx Group has people spying on and monitoring everything he does via an implant in his head. Meanwhile, Stefan Ljung, the operator who monitors Roger, speaks to Roger to warn him that Nina cannot be trusted.
Metropia was an animated film. It is not standard Animation – it was made via a unique kind of computer animation where standard photographs were fed into a computer program that then animated them. It was made as a production between several companies, including Lars von Trier’s Zentropa Entertainment. It was co-written by Stig Larsson who is a Swedish novelist, screenwriter and director, although should not be confused with the other Swedish writer Stieg Larsson of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) fame. The film was shot in English, importing several American voice actors – Vincent Gallo, Juliette Lewis – along with well-known Swedish names including father and son Stellan and Alexander Skarsgård.
Metropia is certainly no kiddie animation – there is animated nudity, for one, and the film has a very dark and sombre tone. The animation creates a weird Uncanny Valley effect where the faces seem lifelike but clearly are not. The visual tone has been reduced almost to monochrome and occasional sepia – about the only other colours throughout are the very faded reds of the coats that Roger and Nina wear.
The world is the Dystopia common of science-fiction. The nearest equivalent I could point to might be Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985), or perhaps even more so the dark Euro future of Lars von Trier’s The Element of Crime (1984). The populace is surveilled everywhere, while the omni-present corporation is behind things and premieres a dandruff shampoo that can alter people’s behaviour and in the later scenes even appear to have turned hair follicles into broadcast antenna to read thoughts.
Roger (Voiced by Vincent Gallo) and Nina (Voiced by Juliette Lewis)The dreary monochrome world of the future
The film has a somewhat slow pace. The limited nature of the animation adds to this where there is often only a single element moving in the frame. It is not always easy to work out what is going on at the outset where you are unclear if you are watching surrealism or avant garde animation, although it all eventually comes together as a not too bad SF plot. Slow but a not uninteresting journey there.
Metropia was a directorial debut for Tarik Saleh, a Swedish national of half-Egyptian parentage. Saleh subsequently went on to direct the live-action likes of Tommy (2014), The Nile Hilton Incident (2017), Boy from Heaven (2022) and the US-made The Contractor (2022), as well as co-direct the documentary Gitmo: The New Rules of War (2005).
