Utøya: July 22

ANDY’S RATING: ★★★★ In cinemas on Friday

WHEN does it stop being “too soon” to release a drama about a real-life tragedy?

In the case of the atrocities committed by Norwegian fascist Anders Breivik, it seems the answer is seven years and three months. This powerful drama, from Norway’s Erik Poppe, is the second movie to be released this month about the massacre of 69 children at a youth camp on Utøya island in the summer of 2011.

As Bourne director Paul Greengrass’ July 22 has just appeared on Netflix, we have an opportunity for a grisly compare-and-contrast exercise.

Both are interesting. The Netflix movie offers multiple perspectives and allows us to see the bigger picture, including a look at the twisted ideologies of the murderous loner.

Apart from a couple of fuzzy glimpses of the coward, Poppe sticks with the kids.

It’s brutal, nerve-shredding and packed with humanity. The director doesn’t want us to think about the attack, he wants us to feel it.

The use of a single take and a real time structure may sound flashy but are entirely justified. Here we are thrown right in the middle of the mayhem as the horror unfolds.

We begin with CCTV footage from the Oslo attack, where Breivik claimed his first eight victims with a bomb at a government building.

Then we jump to the island, where the nervous kids have just read the news on their phones.

Kaja (Andrea Berntzen) is a level-headed teenager who is annoyed by the insensitive reaction of her sister Emilie (Elli Rhiannon Müller Osbourne).

Petter (Brede Fristad) is a bit of a loudmouth who likes winding-up his fellow campers. While Asian teen Issa (Sorosh Sadat), is hoping the terror attack is not the work of an Islamist jihadist, which he knows will empower Norwegian racists.

Suddenly, the debate is interrupted by the sound of screams and gunfire. From here, the camera stays on Kaja as she tries to decide whether to run, hide, help strangers or search for her missing sister.

Like all the characters, she is a fictional creation. But Poppe and his screenwriters interviewed more than 40 survivors before embarking on the hugely challenging shoot.

In many ways, this is a pretty horrible experience, but it’s also a worthy tribute to the courage and the humanity of the victims.