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The ten-episode series is co-directed by Stian Kristiansen and Uri Barbash, and stars Andrea Berntzen, Anneke von der Lippe, Anders T Andersen and Shadi Mar’i. A new ten-part thriller series, entitled Abducted, is set to premiere on TV2 Norway and TV2 Sumo on 11 April. The project, co-directed by Stian Kristiansen (the TV series Witch Hunt and Home Ground) and Uri Barbash (Kapo in Jerusalem), is based on a script penned by Kyrre Holm Johannessen and Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz. Abducted’s lead actors are Andrea Berntzen (U – July 22), Anneke von der Lippe, Anders T Andersen and Shadi Mar’i. The story begins when a young Norwegian girl called Pia gets kidnapped in the Sinai desert with two Israelis. Her parents, Alex and Karl, are first deeply confused, and then shocked, as they...

Director Erik Poppe, Producer Stein B. Kvae, lead actress, Andrea Berntzen and a survivor of the Utoya massacre, attended the Golden Globe screening of “U-July 22” this week in Los Angeles.

When I watched ‘‘U-July 22’ at El Gouna Ff in October, I knew that Paul Greengrass’s film dealing with the same subject was receiving rave notices and I wanted to see the Norwegian version of the event.

Norwegian director Erik Poppe’s depiction of the 2011 terror attack on the Utøya island concentrates on the survivors’ stories, while Greengrass focuses on Anders Breivik, the right-wing gunman and his trial.

Testimonies and known facts

U — July 22 is written on the basis of testimonies and known facts, but for the sake of the victims and their relatives, characters and individual experiences are fictitious.

Most important for us at this moment is to ensure that those affected by the terror are given the opportunity...

Stars: Andrea Berntzen, Aleksander Holmen, Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne, Jenny Svennevig, Solveig Koløen Birkeland, Ingeborg Enes Kjevik, Sorosh Sadat, Brede Fristad, Aleksander Holmen, Karoline Schau | Written by Siv Rajendram Eliassen, Anna Bache-Wiig | Directed by Erik Poppe

Directed by Erik Poppe, this award-winning Norwegian drama recreates the events of the Utoya massacre in a single 72 minute take. Presenting the story entirely from the point of view of one of the victims, it’s a terrifying and horrifically immersive experience that is utterly devastating.

On 22 July, 2011, Norway suffered two tragic terrorist attacks, both committed by one man, a right-wing extremist. The first forms a prologue of sorts here, as CCTV footage shows the car bomb explosion in Oslo that killed eight people. Two hours later, the perpetrator travelled to the island of Utoya and opened fire on a group of defenceless teenagers at a socialist youth summer camp, killing 69 people in the course of 72 minutes.

Iram Haq’s What Will People Say won best director, Norwegian film, actor and screenplay.

Iram Haq’s What Will People Say triumphed at the Amanda Awards on Aug 18, winning the Norwegian national awards for best director (Haq), best Norwegian film in theatrical release, best actor (Adil Hussain) and best screenplay (Haq).

The film, a hit at festivals including Toronto, Les Arcs, AFI Fest and Goteborg, is about a Norwegian teenage girl who clashes with her traditional Pakistan-born parents.

Erik Poppe’s Utoya story U-July 22 won best actress and best supporting actress for newcomers Andrea Berntzen and Solveig Koløen Birkeland.

Next year’s Efm programme will offer networking opportunities with Norwegian professionals.

Source: Agnete Brun

Andrea Berntzen in Erik Poppe’s U-July 22

Norway has been announced as the ‘Country in Focus’ at the 2019 European Film Market of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.

The programme will offer networking opportunities with Norwegian producers, distributors, investors and creative talents, and will spotlight Norwegian productions. Supported by the Norwegian Film Institute against a background of a German-Norwegian partnership, the aim is to augment the exchange between the two countries across culture, business, science and technology.

Berlin festival director Dieter Kosslick, who will step down after the 2019 event, noted the “long tradition” of Norwegian cinema at the Berlinale, and said he looks forward “to strengthening [our] cooperation with Norway.”...

The controversial project is in Competition at Berlin Film Festival.

Erik Poppe’s U-July 22, playing in Competition at the Berlin Film Festival, tells the story of 500 youths who were attacked by terrorist Anders Behring Breivik at a Norwegian summer camp in 2011.

Despite the extremely sensitive subject matter, the project is not exploitative according to Ingrid Endrerud, a real-life survivor from the massacre.

Talking at a press conference during the Berlinale, she said: “The core is to tell the story because it has been impossible to tell. To capture and show this was right – [extremism] is hate in the purest form, and we have to stand against it. This film is historical, and is important to tell.”

Lead actress Andrea Berntzen, who plays fictional character ‘Kaja’ in the film, added that she was initially sceptical of the film.

“When I first heard about this movie, I was critical. Like many others in my generation, some thought this story...

Despite what the likes of Tipper Gore and Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin might have you believe, movies don’t desensitize us to violence — violence desensitizes us to violence. It’s not because of “The Matrix” or “John Wick” (or whatever the scapegoat du jour) that bereaved teenagers have been forced to the front lines of America’s war of attrition against radical gun fetishists, it’s because nothing changed after Las Vegas, or Sandy Hook, or San Bernardino, or Sutherland Springs, or Orlando, or Aurora, or Virginia Tech, or Fort Hood, or Columbine, or any of the tens of thousands of other shooting deaths that have happened in this country between the ones we all know by name. It’s because every senseless death makes the next one that much more unreal — easier to believe but harder to imagine.

If anything, movies have the power to re-sensitize us to violence,...

How do you make a film about Utøya? Veteran Norwegian helmer Erik Poppe’s latest feature will revive discussions about the justification of making movies about recent historical tragedies, just as Paul Greengrass suffered the wrath of the Twitterati when it was announced he, too, was making a movie about the 2011 Norway attacks for Netflix. It’s been six-and-a-half years since right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 in the worst attack in Norway since the Second World War. This grueling, pulsating, in-your-face film–almost to a fault–has ferocious power, but it’s going to divide like a fissure.

Shot in one take in a style that could raise accusations of artistic pretension, Poppe’s camera settles on 18-year-old Kaja–a fictional character, like all others in the film–portrayed in a brave, dignified performance by newcomer Andrea Berntzen. Kaja wants to be in politics and is in the ideal place for it,...

Erik Poppe’s U - July 22 has its world premiere in Berlinale Competition.

TrustNordisk has closed a number of deals on Erik Poppe’s U – July 22 ahead of the film’s world premiere here on Monday in Competition.

The film has sold to Latin America (California), China (Hgc), Korea (Cinema de Manon), Hungary (Vertiog), Slovakia and Czech Republic (Film Europe) and Portugal (Alambique).

Poppe’s story is set on July 22, 2011, when 500 youths were at a youth Labour summer camp on Utoya island outside Oslo, where they were attacked by terrorist Anders Behring Breivik.

Poppe very much wanted to avoid focusing on Breivik – in the film he is not named and just glimpsed as a passing figure – as he wanted to tell the story from the point of view of the youths.

The filmmaker asked actual survivors of the attack serving as consultants on the film. “I got a lot of support having a team of young survivors staying...

Norwegian director Erik Poppe’s depiction of the 2011 terror attack on the Utøya island will be his third entry at the Berlin International Film Festival 15–25 FebruaryNorwegian director Erik Poppe’s U — July 22 (Utøya 22. juli) has been selected for the main competition at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival, which takes place between 15–25 February. Norway’s eighth contender for the Golden Bear top prize will unspool on 19th February at the Berlinale Palast.

To be chosen for the competition programme Berlin is among the highest honors any film can get, wherever it comes from,” says Stine Helgeland, head of communication, insight and international relations at the Norwegian Film Institute. “We have been confident that Poppe could bring this difficult story to the screen, and we are proud that the the film has now received unconditional recognition for its quality.

Testimonies and known facts

U — July 22 is written on the basis of testimonies and known facts,...