by Stefania Fumo
VENICE, Italy, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The movie 22 July by British director Paul Greengrass, which premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, explores how an individual, a family, and a country deal with the trauma and the consequences of a deadly terrorist attack.
Based on the true story of a terrorist attack in Norway in which 77 people died, the movie examines two opposing world-views -- one rooted in nationalism and fear of immigrants, the other a belief in integration and a democratic, non-violent society -- through the story of a young survivor's physical and emotional journey to recovery.
On July 22, 2011, Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Breivik killed eight people with a car bomb parked near a government building in the capital, Oslo, then traveled to the island of Utoya, where teen students had gathered at a summer leadership camp to discuss racial integration, and gunned down 69 people, many of them the children of the country's political class and young refugees who had fled war-torn countries in other parts of the world.
In the movie, the Norwegian terrorist explicitly blames "liberal elites" for immigration, declares his intent to "kill the leaders of tomorrow", and demands "a total ban" on immigration into Norway.
The story is skillfully told in a powerful combination of suspense, action, and restraint by 63-year-old Greengrass, a veteran Oscar-nominated filmmaker who has directed three of the Jason Bourne movies in the blockbuster franchise starring Matt Damon as a rogue spy.
"What is troubling ... is that the worldview (Breivik) propagated, the rhetoric he deployed, the arguments he used, which in 2011 would have seemed preposterous, are now pretty much mainstream," said Greengrass in reference to the advance of rightwing, populist parties in Europe.
The filmmaker added that he specifically chose to distribute his movie on Netflix because "I very much want this film to reach a young audience: it is their generation who will have to repel tomorrow the advances of the extreme right today."
Greengrass also said that it is up to those who "do not subscribe to the populist rightwing view to come up with arguments and rhetoric that can persuade people to their point of view" but that "so far, I think it's pretty clear that they've failed."
"Until they do, this shift to the right is going to get worse. The danger is that incubated within that (rightwing populist) rhetoric is a growing fringe of hatred that can (degenerate into) violence," Greengrass warned.
22 July will debut on Oct. 10 in select theaters worldwide and on Netflix.
The Venice Film Festival, now in its 75th year, will end on Sept. 8.
