Utøya – July 22, 2018.
Directed by Erik Poppe.
Starring Andrea Berntzen.
SYNOPSIS:
A teenage girl struggles to survive and to find her younger sister during the July 2011 terrorist mass murder at a political summer camp on the Norwegian island of Utøya.
Though it premieres at the LFF mere days after Paul Greengrass’ own dramatisation of the 2011 Norway attacks landed on Netflix, this alternate take from Norwegian director Erik Poppe offers a validly haunting, tasteful addition to the conversation.
While Greengrass’ movie did also boast a Norwegian cast and crew, Utøya – July 22 conversely doesn’t force them to speak English. It’s a small immediate difference, perhaps, but the native tongue makes this lower-key take feel more authentic right from the jump.
The “gimmick”, if you like, is that Anders Behring Breivik’s 72-minute killing spree at the Utøya summer camp, in which 69 people died, is presented here as one continuous single take following a brief introduction. Though the “invisible” cuts joining sequences together are fairly obvious, Poppe’s execution – involving a sprawling rural locale and hundreds of young actors – is no less stirring as a result. That the “one-r” never upstages the horror of the day is key.
Poppe also makes the bold, admirable choice never to name the perpetrator nor even explicitly feature him; he’s only visible once at a decent distance. Virtually no time is afforded to the man or his agenda, and the focus here is squarely on the terrified youngsters attempting to outrun a seemingly unstoppable spectre of death.
Andrea Berntzen plays our protagonist Maja, a headstrong and determined young woman who, as one character puts it, is the type of person people like to vote for (she wants to go into politics, you see).
She spends the bulk of the movie attempting to track down her missing sister while stumbling across various others trying to stay alive, and Berntzen’s traumatic performance at times recalls the bug-eyed brilliance of Aleksei Kravchenko’s shell-shocked protagonist in the 1985 Soviet war classic Come and See.
Though Poppe keeps the “antagonist” at bay and takes a measured approach to brutality, the overall experience is no less visceral. The nauseating sound design – especially the piercing gunshots and blood-curdling screams – combines with urgent camerawork to make this an uncommonly queasy “adaptation” of a real-life tragedy.
There are several stomach-knottingly suspenseful sequences – perhaps most effectively Kaja hiding quietly in a tent as unidentified footsteps pass by outside – and some that devolve into horrifyingly quiet hopelessness. People die without sentiment in front of Kaja’s eyes, and they do so slowly and painfully.
The “what would you do?” feeling is intensely palpable throughout, all the way to the devastating, wilfully un-cathartic conclusion, ahead of a chilling post-script about the rise of right-wing extremism in Europe and the West.
Its spare, matter-of-fact approach may prove too unwieldy for some, but Utøya – July 22 is mighty filmmaking of a high order. A gut-wrenching document of a sickening tragedy, made all the more powerful by its decision to deny the perpetrator oxygen.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more film rambling.
