This film of the mass shooting of 77 people, mostly teen students, in 2011 in Norway, is chilling. Director Paul Greengrass (United 93, Captain Phillips, The Bourne movies) puts you right in the middle of the terror one man brought upon his targets. The Director presents this incredibly well documented re-creation of the devastating events of 22 July politically and emotionally. It is a horrifying tragedy that many have forgotten.
The film is based on the novel, “One of Us” by Åsne Seierstad. Greengrass follows two of the children as they are being taken by their parents to a ferry for a weekend at a Worker’s Youth League summer camp. You see scores of happy teens looking forward to a fun time on the beautiful island of Utoya. The question posed the boy who becomes important to the story, is what would you do if you were Prime Minister?
In the meantime, Anders Behring Breivik (Anders Danielsen Lie), is a right-wing extremist who is meticulously filling a van with explosives to blow up a government building with the Prime Minister inside. Eight people were killed. The Prime Minister survives and plays an integral part in mobilizing his staff to find out how that happened and the connection to the carnage on Utoya.
Breivik used the explosion to divert attention, then headed to the island to kill as many young people as he could by shooting them one at a time. Greengrass uses hand-held cameras to put you right there, running with the kids as they flee for their lives. It is absolutely heart pumping.
We follow Viljar, (Jonas Strand Gravli) who is running with his brother and a group of other teens. They escape through the woods, dodging bullets and finally hide under a bluff by the water. Viljar pushes his brother and others to run in a gut wrenching scene after Breivik puts 5 bullets in Viljar, leaving him for dead. Greengrass has you wonder for much of the film if his parents will ever find his body. The shooting stops as Breivik is apprehended, proud of the mess he’s left behind.
Viljar’s younger brother is found by his parents and the director shows their frantic search going to hospitals finding out about who and how many have been wounded or murdered. This is every parent’s nightmare and you live it with them, from surgery, to near death, the slow recovery after losing an eye and having to learn to walk again. And he is only one of the victims. But it’s not just physical but psychological for him as well as the rest of the 200 injured in the incident, plus the families of the people who died.
Viljar wrestles with testifying against the killer. His frustration hits its peak in a scene where he takes a reckless ride on a snowmobile that could have killed him. Surrounded by pristine white Norwegian hills and mountain snow, he looks lost, physically as well as mentally. His appearing in the same room with the killer is tense and disturbing.
Breivik’s mission was to make a political statement about immigration diluting the Norwegian population in his manifesto. He’s a part of the Knight’s Templars he says are all over Europe. Scary thought. Anders Danielsen Lie plays the villain almost too well. He is a vile human being, proud in every way of the carnage he has wrought. His condescending, narcicistic smirk will make your skin crawl. Put on trial, Breivik’s smugness and the drama raising his arm in a Nazi salute recreate the signs of past hate that is still very much alive.
Nothing and no one can bring back the lives lost that day. Utøya survivor,
Lara (Seda Witt), gives a speech talking about what it’s like to be a refugee that is compellingly sad. She describes the fear of living among people who are fearful of her. We live in dangerous times and Greengrass brings it home in graphic detail showing the fear and pain of a mass shooting like too many we’ve seen since. He offers no remedy but gives us images that make us acutely aware that something must be done, so it doesn’t happen again.
Netflix 2 hours 15 minutes R
