Skip to main content
Utoya: surviving hell
MARIA DUARTE believes the singular focus on the resilience of the victims is both edifying and a blow to fascists
https://youtu.be/mgF83LnQOOA

Utoya – July 22 (15)
Directed by Erik Poppe

THIS is the second film in two weeks dealing with the 2011 Utoya massacre, but, unlike Paul Greengrass's version, this unfolds in real time, seemingly in one take, as it depicts the harrowing gunning down of 69 young people on the Norwegian island entirely from their perspective.

Although the characters are fictional the film is based on detailed accounts from many of the real survivors.

What this reconstruction captures is the horror, the panic, the confusion and the terror those youngsters underwent at the hands of far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik, when he hunted them down at Labour's youth league summer camp dressed as a police officer.

Donate to the Fighting Fund
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
round up
Cinema / 3 April 2025
3 April 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Sebastian, Four Mothers, Restless, and The Most Precious of Cargoes
fotw
Film of the week / 3 April 2025
3 April 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a drama that explores the formative years of Richard Burton’s life
FOTW
Film of the week / 13 March 2025
13 March 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a deliciously dark thriller that explores the complex loyalties within a marriage
round up
Cinema / 13 February 2025
13 February 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE review Cottontail, Memoir of a Snail, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and Captain America: Brave New World
Similar stories
FOTW
Film of the week / 28 November 2024
28 November 2024
MARIA DUARTE recommends a documentary that reconstructs the part played by white activists in the struggle against apartheid
fotw
Film of the week / 7 November 2024
7 November 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an unlikely tale of friendship between an Israeli and a Palestinian in the midst of West Bank ethnic cleansing
Germany's Alexandra Popp celebrates scoring their side's fir
Women's Football / 30 September 2024
30 September 2024
round up
Cinema / 5 September 2024
5 September 2024
Yorkshire chills, tangled in the dark web, pregnancy diaries and brackish juice: MARIA DUARTE reviews Starve Acre, Red Rooms, My First Film and Beetlejuice