Greengrass finds hope in tragedy
CELEBRATED C filmmaker Paul Greengrass said all his films — including Bloody Sunday, United 93, Green Zone, Captain Phillips, the Bourne movies and his latest picture 22 July, about the killing o of 77 people by extreme rightwing terrorist Anders Breivik — are connected.
‘The factual and the fictional o ones are related to what I did on World In Action,’ he said, referring to the landmark Granada weekly news documentary series where he got his start, aged 22.
‘The job was to get out in the world and observe,’ he told me, adding that he applies the same d disciplines in his big Hollywood thrillers and more intimate films, such as 22 July, which he filmed on locations in Norway using an all Norwegian cast and crew. Greengrass read the testimony of killer Anders Behring Breivik and met Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s prime minister at the time of the 2011 massacre.
‘I went to ask him if he thought it was an inappropriate idea to make the film. I needed a cautious reading of the situation. You don’t want to walk into peoples’ tragedy and intrude, frankly.’
Stoltenberg gave him the green light, as did the families of the murdered, and the survivors.
Greengrass opted to make the film in English, after the actors told him Norwegians are bilingual. ‘ I don’t speak a word of Norwegian, so that was easy.’
The film concentrates as much on the survivors, particularly student Viljar Hanssen (played by Jonas Strand Gravli), as the killer. Their voices are a powerful counterpoint to Breivik’s hate.
It serves as a warning of what can happen when populism and nationalist ideology get out of hand. But it’s also a masterpiece about how the love of family and friends can conquer hatred.
Netflix will stream 22 July from October 10, when it is also released in 12 UK Curzon cinemas.