NRK Plans Drama About 2011 Norway Terrorist Attack
NRK has announced plans for a 70m NOK six part drama about the 2011 terrorist attack in Norway carried out by far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik, written by Sara Johnsen (Upperdog) and directed by Pål Sletaune (Next Door).
On 22 July 2011 Breivik detonated a van in Oslo killing eight people, then shot dead 69 people at a summer camp on the island of Utøya. In August 2012 he was convicted of mass murder, causing a fatal explosion, and terrorism.
The series, entitled 22 July (22. Juli), will not be about Breivik himself but the people who were affected by his act of terror, such as those who had to bury the dead, rescue the injured, comfort the bereaved and sentence the guilty.
Sara Johnsen told NRK: “He does not have a natural place in our series. And he doesn’t deserve one either… It belongs to those who were there… We feel that this is a very good way to say something about our country. Who we are as people and how the country works when there is such an extreme disaster.”
This announcement follows the news that British director Paul Greengrass has plans for a film about the tragic events, based on the book One Of Us by Åsne Seierstad.
22 July begins filming in April 2018 and is slated to air in autumn 2019.