It is a strange combination of projects to tackle side by side: the horror of Utøya and the blissful, escapist music of Norway’s favourite pop band, A-ha. Director Aslaug Holm discusses how she juggled the two projects, and also how they in some ways overlap.
Norwegian director Aslaug Holm profiles survivors of the mass shooting on the island of Utøya, which happened 10 years ago, for her documentary Generation Utøya, which she co-directed with Sigve Endresen and which premieres at Hot Docs, sold by First Hand Films.
Meanwhile, alongside Thomas Robsahm, she has also co-directed A-ha The Movie, about Norway’s much loved pop band. The film, delayed because of Covid, is now set to premiere at Tribeca. Sales are also handled by First Hand Films.
Holm, who runs production outfit Fenris Film with her husband Tore Buvarp, describes Generation Utøya as “a huge responsibility.” She had never been on the island before beginning work on the documentary.
“It has this ambience,” she suggests. “It has both the dark side but also some light. The island has become a new centre for democracy and freedom. The youth organisation has actually managed to rebuild the island and start again. That was so impressive and hopeful.”
The documentary looks at what has happened in the lives of four female survivors from the attacks. “They reflected different sides of the story we wanted to tell. All of them had been on Utøya during the terror attacks. They had been in different places and [were] hiding. They have struggled in different ways after the attack.”
Utøya was targeted because of the annual youth camp held there for AUF, the youth wing of the Labour Party. In spite of their experiences, the four women in the documentary have remained active in politics – and have retained their idealism. Kamzy was elected deputy mayor of Oslo while Ina became leader of the youth wing of the Labour Party. Line, meanwhile, is gradually overcoming anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Renate who, has a beautiful singing voice, stands for the triumph of hope and youth over despair.
For natural reasons, survivors of the massacre have tried to protect themselves from the media. Some were initially sceptical about participating in the documentary. Ina, for one, was wary. “She didn’t know if she could let the camera go so close and intimate.” In the end, she decided to trust the two filmmakers. Line did likewise, eventually allowing the directors to shoot her therapy sessions.
Making the documentary, co-directors Holm and Endressen participated in three of the annual summer camps. She did the camerawork. He handled the sound. They both shared the same vision for the film.
There have been several dramas and documentaries about the tragic events on the island. Holm has generally admired them. Paul Greengrass’s 22 July was English language and, she believes, helped “people abroad to become involved in the story.” Erik Poppe’s film Utøya: July 22, shot in a single 72-minute take in real time, was “more for the victims, and to understand what it was to be on the island.”
“When we started preparing our film, I felt it was a huge challenge to make a new film about Utøya,” Holm remembers. However, her documentary has a political dimension that some of the other films about the incident have lacked. It looks both at the way the Norwegians initially responded to the terrorist violence with “flowers” and why the country later shifted to the right.
“The victims and the young politicians we are making the film about were actually frightened to death because they believed in these ideal values,” Holm remembers of the response to the changing political landscape.
Generation Utøya is being given an 80-90 screen release in Norway this month by Euforia. The two directors will be travelling around the country, participating in Q&As.
Yes, Holm suggests, it was “a huge contrast” and “quite surrealistic” to be working on the A-ha film as she was finishing Generation Utøya. “But, at the same time, it is also about human beings. I felt for example that Morten Harket, the A-ha singer, is quite an existential person,” the director suggests. As he ponders what it’s like to be “a human being alone in the world,” she felt a closeness to him similar to what she felt with the four women in Generation Utøya.
“I think it is about the same longing for a better world, for something good and [how] we want to keep our dreams,” she says of the unlikely overlaps between the two films.
Holm talks of her enduring admiration for the young survivors of the Utøya massacre. “It was actually inspiring filming the young characters. They have this life and these dreams. They were looking forward,” she reflects. “When I got home from shooting, I was often uplifted in a way. I was inspired to get out and fight for democracy and a better world!”
