Utøya: July 22

This is the film I wanted to see when I saw Greengrass's _July 22_.

If you want to make a movie about a mass shooting, and you want the audience to feel what it's like to strive to survive, you film it in one single take and you film it in real time. Basically, you film it exactly like _Utøya: July 22_.

_U July 22_ follows one young woman from the start through to the end of the mass shooting that took place on July 22, 2011 in Oslo, Norway, at a youth summer camp on the island of Utøya. The technical expertise required to make the entire film **in one take** and **in real time** boggles the mind, but creates a sense of immediacy that pulls the viewer into the story and traps them there.

The film's weaknesses (a couple of scenes feel like filler and others fall into cliché) do little to reduce the overall impact of _U July 22_, especially when the director (Erik Poppe) chooses to film in Norwegian and to never reference the shooter by name. _Utøya_ is one of the most unique, powerful and authentic films you will see this year.

Brilliant use of the techniques of cinéma vérité make for a disturbingly realistic experience

Utøya 22. juli is an aesthetically fascinating, pseudo-documentarian examination of the 2011 Utøya massacre, told from the perspective of one of the youths trapped on the island, rather than the killer, the police, the parents, or the courts. Decidedly different from Paul Greengrass's recently released Netflix film, 22 July, the makers of Utøya 22. juli have little interest in either overt political contextualisation or the aftermath of the massacre. Where Utøya 22. juli is especially laudable is in its extraordinary and thematically justified aesthetic design, which elevates it from a fine film to a superb one.

For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/ygRKf

When I heard that they were making movies about this event, I was sceptical of movie makers profiting off of the survivors. But if you're going to make a movie, this is the way to do it. Focus on the survivors, not the terrorist and why he did what he did.

After watching the film about the catastrophe of the shooting on the island of Norway, one has many questions: how could he have been shooting for so long without anyone else having it? How is it possible that nobody reduced it? How come they didn't escape anymore? How come this man had so much ammunition? And, above all, how is it possible that this man is in jail quietly?

This film is basically shot in one single take, following the lives of individual en masse at Utoya, a Norwegian island that was attacked by a right-wing extremist who created a massacre.

This is a fairly good film; it has a lot going for it, but somewhat falls into a mesh of sappiness which lays in the back of my mouth when thinking back to seeing this film. Still, most of the acting is very well performed. I'm looking forward to seeing Paul Greengrass's film version of the same event.