Last year, two directors decided to remind the world of the tragedy that occurred on July 22, 2011, when the radical Andres Breivik staged a mass shooting at the youth summer camp of the Workers’ Party of Norway on the island of Utoya. The painting by Paul Greengrass, which premiered at the Venice IFF in September 2018, has already been studied, now has the opportunity to get acquainted with the first attempt to tell about those terrible events from director Eric Poppe, who presented his work at the Berlinale 2018. While watching Utoya, the audience at the Berlin Film Festival split into two camps: some applauded and expressed delight, others booed and could not hide their contempt, accusing the director of speculating on tragedy and cheap manipulation of emotions. As for personal impressions, they really get stuck somewhere in the middle, although the feeling of Poppe’s work still tends to be positive.
Realizing that the task before him is responsible, since all this happened not so long ago and many witnesses of the tragedy are alive and perfectly remember the events of that dark day, the director had no right to lie, but respecting the feelings of the victims was also part of his duties. Unlike the Greengrass film, where most of the drama is studied after the fact, Poppe’s work does not deal with reflections, analysis of characters and consequences, but has one goal – to immerse the viewer in the very center of the massacre, plunge him into the hell in which the teenagers lived. The main character, young Kaia, appears on the screen after several documentary footage of the explosion in Oslo and, turning her face to the lens, utters words that are kind of addressed to the girl’s mother by a headset that is invisible at first glance, but, above all, to the audience, offering not to describe the horror with words, but to see it: “You will not understand anything.” Just listen to me. From now on, the camera will follow her on her heels without a single editing glue, first smoothly walking along with Kaia around the camp, watching her throw meaningless phrases with friends, casual acquaintances and sister Emilia. But shots are heard in the forest, and the operator, looking from behind the girl’s shoulder, will race with her into the thicket, joining the same running teenagers, feverishly trying to find shelter and, most importantly, Kaia’s sister, who forgot her phone in the tent.
Let’s start with the undoubted advantages, and there are quite a few. Despite the scenario simplicity, because of which the director was already accused of the scarcity of ideas and empty savoring of animal fear, the panic state of the crowd is skillfully recreated on the screen, when the horror is felt almost physically and as if dissolved in cloudy weather, lead water, children's screams, damp forest and trees, behind which an unfamiliar shooter hides, and the director avoids special bloody details and naturalism in every possible way. By the way, the viewer will not see Breivik himself, moreover, his name is not even mentioned on the credits, the terrorist in Poppe is an impersonal threat. Events last exactly as long as they really were - painful 72 minutes, filled with fear, waiting for new shots, fading hope for salvation and a complete misunderstanding of what is happening, making time seem to freeze and what is happening seems almost endless. Shooting the picture took only five days, but rehearsals lasted throughout the summer, in this regard, one cannot but admire the selfless play of Andrea Berntzen, who had to spend a lot of physical and mental strength.
As for the disadvantages, Poppe, too, unfortunately, did not escape. And if some plot hanging, manifested in the form of long conversations, not always appropriate in a panic state that covers a person, can still somehow be attributed to realism (still, the movie claims to be a detailed reconstruction, and in reality events are not based on the principle of a classic thriller), then frankly melodramatic clichés I would like less. Poppe claimed that the characters of his film are fictional and therefore Kaia is a collective image based on the stories of witnesses. But the heroine is sometimes depicted excessively “correct”, and all these constant impulses to go in search of her sister, as well as parents calling dying teenagers, children refusing to run somewhere, waiting for their brother and forgetting to take off their bright jacket, in order to be killed, eventually give a little “Hollywood” and work against the director, leveling his noble messages with a somewhat vulgar desire to squeeze a tear.
But the end result is nonetheless impressive. And, even if the director does not plunge into any philosophical wilds, his thoughts are already laid in the very concept, reminding that the massacre on the island is an echo of explosions in the city, which, like any terrorist act, will have unpredictable consequences and the next blow will be inflicted in the most unexpected place and on the most defenseless victims.
7 out of 10