22 July (2018)

On July 22, 2011 a white supremacist planed a bomb in the Norwegian capital and then drove to a summer camp and killed a number of teens and adults during a shooting rampage. He killed a total of 77 people. Writer director Paul Greengrass, famous for the Bourne movies but also behind United 93, another film about a terrorist attack, crafted this examination of the event. Greengrass uses his signature "reality" style of film making to make this feel like the real events. But the authenticity he invokes isn't just stylistic. He spends significant time on the impact of such an event on individuals which lends the film a great deal of emotional punch.

Unlike United 93, which I felt sanitized and oversimplified the events, 22 July gets into the nitty gritty of human emotion in the wake of an attack like this. You might be surprised to find out the event itself (rendered devastatingly real even in its short sequence) is over within the first 20 minutes of the film. From there 22 July moves through the lives and emotions of the people affected, the surviving victims, their families, the public, the politicians responding, the lawyer appointed to defend the terrorist. And this is where the film finds its real strength.

22 July is difficult to watch, not solely for the violence of the specific day but for the way the violence continued after as the nation struggled to deal with the horror of men like this terrorist. Anders Danielsen Lie, so strong in the French film The Night Eats the World earlier this year, does an amazing job of playing the monster responsible in all his complexity. The rest of the cast also does an admirable job playing the people struggling to live, to survive, and to continue on in the wake of the tragedy.

22 July is a fascinating look at the many ways racist horror create violence and the ways that violence reverberates through cultures struggling to be something more. Greengrass' exploration is powerful, difficult, and important.

22 July
Starring: Anders Danielsen Lie
Writer/Director: Paul Greengrass