22 July Directed by Paul Greengrass
22 July
Directed by Paul Greengrass
Starrings: Anders Danielsen, Jonas Strand Gravli, Jon Øigarden, Maria Bock, Thorbjørn Harr, Seda Witt, Isak Bakli Aglen, Ola G. Furuseth, Anders Kulsrud Storruste
Year: 2018
Country: Norway, Iceland, USA
Review Author: Roberto Matteucci
Click Here for Italian Version
"It was a carnage ... The blood Friday began after 3 p.m. Yesterday. The first explosion devastates the government office area in Oslo, striking the premier's offices, Jeons Stoltenberg, and other government offices (at least 7 victims); then just two hours later, the insane shootout on the island where about 560 teenagers were gathered (between 13 and 15), but also former politicians of the Labour Party who led the government and where the same prime minister was expected. At least eighty victims in the idyllic little island in the fjord far around thirty kilometres from the capital.
...
The Norwegian terrorist, 32 years old, approached dressed as a police officer ... shortly he started shooting at madly. The young people tried to escape into the woods and some even threw themselves into the water in an attempt to save themselves.
...
The arrested is Anders Behring Breivik, and he immediately confessed his responsibilities. " (1)
Yes, the terrorist was a Norwegian. The most ferocious and bloody attack in Norway was carried outby a Norwegian: Anders Behring Breivik. It makes everything more painful. Had it happened for a foreigner or an international conspiracy or the ISIS or cruel spies, mourning would have been more easily processed. Like Julius Caesar, he was not surprised to be stabbed but sad to discover one of the killers was his son Brutus: “Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi!”
Anders Behring Breivik is like Brutus for the American director Paul Greengrass in the movie 22 July, produced by Netflix and presented at the 75th Venice Film Festival.
Norway is a very rich country; the per capita income is USD 72,100, ranking eleventh in the world.
The sovereign wealth fund of the kingdom is the richest in the world, with around one trillion dollars of assets, means every inhabitant of Norway when born has a credit of 190 thousand euro. (2)
"Isn't it a trial against Norway and against you?"
"Are you sure?" It is Breivik's short answer. This theme is central in the simple but concrete story of 22 July.
Anders Breivik is a son of Norway, of that wealth from North Sea oil. Breivik should not be underestimated,so he is not crazy, he is an educated, intelligent, prepared person. He suffers from pride, from vanity, from a concept of false superiority, and from sloth, because he is a lazy one, a loner, without friends. On the Internet, it has many contacts, but they are only virtual. He has shared, popular ideas, spread everywhere in this social moment, from a capitalist and globalist policy. So what occurred?
Moreover, Paul Greengrass starts immediately with this thesis.
“The first 30 minutes of this movie, the attacks, are just so overwhelming.
No, I get it. I get it. I had to think about all that before I made the movie. What I would say is that it’s not a film about the attacks, it’s a film about what happened after.”
But in reality the beginning is not just a military attack against the defenceless, it is something more.
It's July 22nd, 2011, the opening is an alternation between the phases of crime preparation and the celebration on the island of Utøya of so many beautiful young Labour boys.
The Breivik forest farm corresponds to the Utøya, they are two different worlds but coming from the same tree. The behaviour of adolescents on the island is of exaggerated happiness, surely excessive, unreal, and politically correct: they laugh, joke, play football. The harmonic images of Labour guys are the opposite of Breivik's isolation.
The scene of the organization is concise but essential. The assault stars, the terrorist attacks were two, the first with a powerful bomb near the Prime Minister's offices in Oslo. In this crime, Breivik has far and fleeting apparition.
Divergent is the raid on the island. Breivik has a fundamental part, he does not use a remote-controlled bomb, but he looks in the eyes of the boys when he shoots them. He is ruthless, he has a military and martial coldness, he hunts them one by one in the wood, he follows them everywhere and impassive beats them to death.
There is action, movement, tension but also will to disturb. Will not present in the corpses of the explosive - the director does not care about them - but it is intense with the killed young people; example the framing of the shocked policeman when he sees the corpses being slaughtered.
The film could end here, it already narrated the saddest moments.
It continues as a Law Movie. It is a historical trial, an occasion of confrontation with themselves, a civil war between Norwegians.
Here the protagonist becomes Viljar Hanssen, one of the teenagers of the island, seriously wounded. He has a piece of bullet in his head. It cannot be extracted, it is next the brain.He can live but it could be enough an accidental hit to move the bullet and kill him.
Breivik and Viljar Hanssen are the new duality. Both children of the same society represent the dichotomy of Norway.
Viljar Hanssen is smart, handsome. He was hitnot only physically but above all psychologically, his brilliant future as a Norwegian liberal is disappeared.
Below are the trial and the obvious judgement.
A new item arrives. The contrast with his lawyer - Geir Lippestad - directly chosen. Lippestad would not like to have this role. He does not understand why he was selected. But he must fulfil his duty reluctantly and in fact, the preparation of the defence takes place with a myriad of difficulties.
The punishment comes for everyone's satisfaction.
Netflix produced the film; the screenplay has a long rhythm suitable for a television product. For the cinema, it would need a deep cut and another dynamic.
It does not eliminate the goodness of the film, its narrative, thanks to the skill of the author.
The main defect is the lack of novelty, do not tell anything more, it would need more courage in representing a strong and sensitive plot.
On the other hand, everything is linear.
The Freudian condition: the relationship with the mother. The father is absent and Breivik has lived with her. However, the woman avoids him and does not support him, and she wants his condemnation. The woman talks to the lawyer, close-up points out her face when she tells that Breivik was non-violent. But she refuses to go to court to testify on his behalf, because "... everyone would know who I am." That is why it upsets Breivik's statement: "I have a good relationship with my mother."
The author likes the sequence of Viljar Hanssen's deposition at the hearing. Previously, he unburdens himself with a friend: “I want to smash his face". Finally, he became aware, abandoning the unpleasant face of I know everything and good boy. The director, creating a true television scene for length and physical vagueness, intimidates his testimony. Even the looks between the two are part of a distinct way of seeing life.
Paul Greengrass weaves stories and people and uses careful language in the representation of the protagonists.
The shot of Breivik from the keyhole when they lock him up in his jail is a sign of his future in prison.
Viljar Hanssen frees himself psychologically in a beautiful shot in the snow; he becomes aware of himself in the charming winter countryside of northern Norway.
One is locked upin a few square meters and the other is wounded but freed in an infinite and white space.
A reference to another shocking event in Scandinavia is not causal towards the end: the murder of Olof Palme Prime Minister of Sweden, which happened in 1986. An episode still without guilt ever forgotten and traumatizing for not having identified the assassination.
Both countries would need to be psychoanalysed, but it is not the task of Paul Greengrass even though he made an attempt.
https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2011/07/23/attentati-in-norvegia-e-una-strage-il-numero-dei-morti-sale-a-87/147350/ Translated by the author.
https://www.ilfoglio.it/economia/2018/02/28/news/fondo-sovrano-norvegia-italia-181432/ Translated by the author.
