Egghead Republic is a surreal satire set in a reimagined 2004, where the Cold War culminated in an atomic bomb being dropped on Soviet Kazakhstan. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Pella Kågerman, the story follows Sonja (Ella Rae Rappaport), a fresh-faced animator eager to make her mark at Kalamazoo—a hot pop-culture magazine not unlike early VICE. When the publication’s editor-in-chief, Dino (Tyler Labine), invites her on an expedition to a radioactive zone in Kazakhstan to chase down rumors of mutated centaurs, Sonja is forced to question what it will cost to pursue her dream of “making it”.
Under our current pop-culture policy—where the term “fake news” feels like a prehistoric proverb and individual atonement is often eclipsed by fast-approaching expiration dates—Kågerman’s Egghead Republic reads less like satire and more like prophecy. I sat down with Kågerman and lead actors Rappaport and Labine to talk about the exacting journey of making Egghead Republic and the ever-murky waters of media ethics.
The film is set in this reimagined version of 2004, but watching it, I feels eerily relevant to how media is today. Why was it so important to keep the film in 2004, and what do you hope audiences can take away from this reimagining from their own perception of contemporary media?
In 1986, a nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl Power Plant, located in what is now Ukraine, ignited global panic and, soon after, a wave of pop-culture-fueled conspiracy theories. Among them were whispers of bizarre mutations and cover-ups from one of the worst radioactive disasters in history. Riding that wave of fascination? VICE! At the height of its infamous run, VICE sent a crew to Chernobyl to track down rumours of post-nuclear mutations, and among them? Kågerman!
Pella
The inspiration for the film came from a book written by this really modernist German writer. It was written in ’57 and the “future” was 2008. It’s about this super horny, male journalist traveling to the Nevada desert when it’s radioactive. When I read it, I got to thinking of what I did in 2004 when I went to Chernobyl with VICE magazine. In a way, it was a marriage of inspirations—the year was 2004ish, so I think that just felt right, or true. There’s a lot about speaking the truth in the film and how we do that—or like, what’s ‘kind of the truth’.
Tyler
Which is also a theme of the film: kind of the truth. You kind of tell the truth, you kind of don’t. Who knows what’s what when talking about media and divisive standpoints. The film is like, who do you trust? What do you trust in today’s media? Do you trust any of it? Is it all bullshit?
Yeah, especially now with social media. That is something we’re questioning constantly.
Tyler
It’s a constant barrage, and we’re just distracted all the time—which is the point, right? Even publications like VICE, which, as a young person I loved, and I knew it was bullshit, I still believed a lot of the shit that I read, you know what I mean? A lot of it was horse shit, a lot of it was satire meant not to be taken literally, but I was a 21-year-old guy reading a magazine; it’s in print, and there are pictures to back it up. So, playing a gonzo reporter for a VICE-like magazine, we could kind of sell people anything.
In addition to, almost, this perversion of the truth, something else in the film that was spoken about a lot was this promise of becoming someone. All the Kalamazoo team members were riding on this “exposure culture.”
Tyler
Not me, haha, I’m pulling the strings.
Yeah, your character Dino doesn’t just manipulate his team with the promise of becoming someone, but also the threat of being absolutely nobody. How was it embodying that character, being someone who is a part of an industry that can be arguably as exploitative?
Tyler
Well, definitely, I have seen my share of that kind of manipulation, especially from men in the industry towards women. I also—and I don’t know how much I should speak on this—but VICE magazine was co-founded by Gavin McInnes, right? And Gavin McInnes founded the Proud Boys in the States, and they’re the ones who plotted the insurgents on the Capitol, right?
Wait, that just clicked in my mind. That’s wild.
He’s wild. I used to know him. I used to see him in Vancouver—worked with him, so I watched a lot of his interviews around the time of the insurgents and around the time he started the Proud Boys. I was like, This dude, I hate this fucking guy, but he’s so charming. He was so good at what he did. After I went down a rabbit hole watching some of his videos, I had to go cleanse my brain. I was like, Oh my god, I’m starting to buy it. I’m starting to buy this guy. I’m starting to see his viewpoint a little too well. So, I approached [Dino] like that. Like, if you are at Svengali, you go for it all the way. You manipulate everybody around you. Everybody’s a pawn. Exactly what you said: I can offer them something, offer them the world, but to [Dino], they’re absolutely nothing. They’re just total fucking garbage. They’re ants. And [Dino] says that to [Sonja] in the film: you’re nobody, you’re nothing. I think that’s how he views everybody; just a way to manipulate to get what he wants, all the time.
It’s crazy that you mention needing to cleanse after watching Gavin McInnes interviews, because there were moments when I was watching this film where I wanted to turn away, especially when your character was interacting with Sonja. Your performance was incredible.
Tyler
It was really hard, but also Pella and Hugo—who’s not here—Pella’s partner and husband, co-director, co-writer, co-everything, co-procreator—the encouragement I got was so amazing, especially from Pella. There were a lot of scenes that I’d finish that were my most disgusting, and she would come over and be like, Oh my god, that was so great. That was so hot. Because I’ve actually encountered that quite a bit with women that have shown this movie. There’s maybe a safety in watching something like this. It’s so off-putting, but that character can be very alluring as well. It can be kind of sexy, to be that nasty. So, I was not only allowed, but encouraged, to go to the deepest, most manipulative, dark parts of my brain, which is scary.
In my notes I wrote down some adjectives about Dino: Gross, manipulative, exploitative, a creep.
Tyler
Yeah, yeah, it’s weird. Every single scene is, what do I want? What am I getting? It’s not just, what’s my motivation as an actor? It is, what does Dino want? He always wants something. He’s always consuming something. I even made him constantly chewing gum, drinking, smoking, and doing cocaine at the same time. Because he just can’t consume enough. He’s that guy that just consumes and consumes and consumes people and experiences and everything, and it’s never enough.
Pella
But I also wonder if it’s a generational thing, because this is set in a period before Me Too. So, I feel like I come from a totally different [generation]. I mean, maybe you wouldn’t find that sexy?
Yeah, for me, watching it, I was like, That is so creepy. That is so gross.
Pella
Can you recognize that behaviour? Because there is a shift that’s been happening.
It’s so interesting, because while I was watching it, from an outside perspective, I felt like it was something I could recognize as being gross, but I also empathized a lot with Sonja. Because if I was trying to have my big break, and I was, you know, confronted with this man who could offer it, but was also so volatile—Sonja repeats throughout the film that she’s using them, she’s using them—and I think that might be something that I, especially a few years ago when I was Sonja’s age, would feel too.
Ella, your character, Sonja, is so ambitious and she’s perceptive, but she’s also young and really vulnerable to a boss like Dino. Being a young person in this industry, how was it tapping into her as a character?
Ella
I can recognize myself a lot in Sonja, and so do my friends who have ambition in the same way—like a very clear goal. She makes a lot of dumb decisions, but what else is she gonna do? But also in these uncertain times; it’s like, where am I gonna end up? What do I have to lose? She takes it very much too far, but that’s the coming-of-age part in the movie—or for the audience, because she doesn’t really come of age, because she forgets about herself totally. But to know where your boundaries are crossed, I think that’s something that everybody has to learn. I still have to learn. It’s very like being in your 20s—
Tyler
—and your
40s.
Ella
And your 40s! Maybe it’s never-ending, I don’t know! One thing I was thinking a lot about while building the character was just, to grow up in Stockholm in a small city where it feels like you know everyone, and you’re bored, and you want to do something, and you get an opportunity, and you say yes, and just, there’s nowhere else you could be. So why not say yes? But still, what are the limits?
One hundred percent. I saw myself in that part of Sonja. Your performance as well was so, so good. You allowed [Sonja] to walk that line of confidence and brazenness, but also, like, slightly unsure of herself and kind of figuring things out. At times, you could see that Sonja knew her boundaries and knew what wasn’t okay, but was going along with it anyway. Because you’re right; what else is she to do?
Tyler
There were many points in the film where the real trick was that line where you know your boundaries are being pushed, but in that moment someone is literally pushing those boundaries. You can see [Sonja] give up on herself, on her boundaries. And I think a lot of people can relate. [Dino] is pushing [Sonja] in that situation to get what she wants. That’s the thing: he’s pushing her towards what she wants, actually—but also, not. That’s the line you [Ella] walk, of giving up on yourself, but also still having to believe in yourself, and then coming into yourself at the end of the film in the weirdest way possible.
Pella
Along those lines, people working at the magazine still, post-Gavin, they have seen the movie, and a lot of people from the New York office, they said that we went light on how it actually was in those times.
Really?! Oh, that’s crazy to me.
Pella
They felt we went light. They recognized it the most with the cactus scene. One person said, why didn’t you go harder on it?
In that scene? Wow.
Pella
Or like in the whole of the movie, [we] could have shown way more.
Oh my god. That is hard to believe. It was already so hard to watch.
Tyler
My mom was one of the first people to see one of the earlier cuts of this film. I showed it to them last summer. And yeah, my mom was like, sweetheart, you’re very good, but that’s really, really hard to watch you do a lot of that stuff.
Pella
Is Vice magazine relevant anymore? Because it feels like it’s not really.
Um, I would say, no.
Ella
I would still say so.
Yeah?
Ella
There’s a lot of guys that are Vice fans that are my age. Yeah, they’re like, I watched the Vice documentary! [said in mock-boy voice]
Pella
It feels like this film is a period piece—early millennial time. The world doesn’t look the same.
I was actually gonna ask if you guys felt like Kalamazoo would have survived in 2025, if it had been real.
Pella
Never ever.
Tyler
No.
Ella
I don’t know… I don’t know. Because, like, hip magazines are still really cool, and it’s like Y2K.
I do feel like magazines are kind of having a rebirth, yeah? But I’m wondering if Dino’s past would have come back and canceled him.
Ella
Oh, yeah, he wouldn’t be the—no.
Tyler
No, there would be a reckoning, for sure—if it was gonna make it again. That’s the importance of 2004 in the film, right?
There would be a documentary called Surviving Kalamazoo.
Tyler
I’ve noticed, having young children, that there’s a bit of a resurgence in this time. Everyone’s kind of seeing everyone, and everyone’s trying to open up and be supportive, but there’s still this weird kind of stuff seeping in.
There’s a conservative shift right now. Especially with young men, yeah.
Tyler
Especially in the States. It’s kind of cool again to be shitty. I hate it, but it’s true. Culturally, there’s definitely a big divide. My kids go to a very progressive, social-emotional growth school, but even on that playground, my kids tell me what they joke about on the playground. I’m like, Oh my god. I think they feel like the heat’s not there anymore. Like, you can say certain things, it’s okay. They’re like, it doesn’t mean the same thing anymore, Dad. I’m like, no, it really does. So, I don’t know, man. Magazines like this could have a moment again.
I want to ask about AI, because obviously the [Kalamazoo team] is on a hunt for rumoured, mutated centaurs. The whole time I was watching this film, I was like, if only Dino had access to AI.
Ella
Wow.
Tyler
They wouldn’t have even gone on the trip!
That’s what I’m wondering! How do you think your characters and this movie would have played out if AI had been there?
Tyler
I mean, we’re about to see how that’s gonna play out. I mean, we don’t totally know the extent of how manipulative AI can be yet. But I think a guy like Dino, at a magazine like Kalamazoo Herald, wouldn’t understand that. The gonzo of it all was sort of what drove my character, you know. To be bold and ballsy and get out there and get the story. But maybe, if he could have just literally sat at his computer and created any reality he wanted to sell people even more shit, maybe he would have been very successful at that.
Yeah, I can see him being like, “Mwahahaha, fooled you—”
Tyler
—again!” Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, the relevance of AI right now, especially in this industry—like, how would this movie even be made in two years from now? A lot of the stuff that you guys, [Pella and Hugo], did practically, and the effects, and the design, and the way the movie looks, would be accomplished in a very different way. These guys, [Pella and Hugo], are purist filmmakers, you know.
No spoilers, but some of the things that we get to see in this film were so beautiful, costume-wise, makeup-wise, and effects. So it’s cool that we are still in a space where, you know, there are purist filmmakers.
Hannah Verina White is a Montreal and Toronto-based writer. She has a deep love for the melodramatic and nostalgic, both of which influence the way she writes and the subjects she chooses to write about.