Clara & Liv
an interview with the team of "Reconstruction Utøya"After the screening of „Reconstruction Utøya“ I was quite nervous about interviewing the team, because I was so deeply affected by the film, but I also had the feeling I really needed to get to talk about the film with the team. At half past five Liv and I entered the Berlinale Palast, were we would meet the director, Carl Javér, and Jenny and Torje, who did two of the reconstructions. We got warmly welcomed with a bottle of water and sat down to start.
You said producing the film took about four years. When and why did you get the idea to make such a film and why did it take so long?
Carl Javér: It started late in 2014, when the Shwedish Democrats, which is a right winged-party, had done its best election ever. I was thinking a lot about Utøya and the political background of it at this time, and wanted to find a way of telling the story without focusing on the terrorist, but on the survivors, who are the rightful owner of the history in my view. First I felt it was almost impossible to make a film about Utøya, but when I got the idea of the method I used I had the feeling that it was possible. So I contacted the support group of Utøya and told them about the project, and I was allowed to send a letter to the close facebook group of the survivors. I told about the reconstruction I planned to make and asked for people who maybe wanted to be part of it. A few answered, Jenny was one of them.
And after all was organised, did you take just one session of filming with all four reconstructions, or were there several filming periods?
CJ: It took quite a while because we wanted to try the methods first. So after one year we did a test-filming with Torje and Jenny to try it out, and I also filmed a little bit at home with the survivors. So first after all this we did the actual filming that took two weeks. Of course we had much more film material than it is shown in the movie, because we’ve had four different cameras in the room, two on the floor and two under the roof, plus one camera from the outside. We actually had much good material we had to cut out and cutting down the film was maybe one of the hardest things.
We want to speak out also our biggest respect to the group of participants. How did you find them and who are they? Did they prepare in a way before filming?
CJ: First of all they needed to be over eighteen and should’ve had more than a year of acting-experience, because it was quite important for us that they knew how to step in and out of a role. But they weren’t actually invited as actors, we invited them as human beings who want to help and unterstand the event on Utøya. So for us it was really important that they really wanted to help and not just to be in a film. We had a day of exercising before filming, were we talked and shared a little bit of our experiences of Utøya. But most of them didn’t know each other before the camp and didn’t had contact with the topic before, we picked them from all over Norway because we wanted them to have different dialects.
We wonder how it was for all the participates on the camp, because two weeks together are quite a long time and the topic is so difficult to handle. So we want to know from Jenny and Torje how it actually was being there together, especially beyond the reconstructions.
Jenny: It was really nice and I would say we got really close to each other in these two weeks. I think because we were sharing so much it didn’t took very long getting to know each other. We were living there on the film camp, so we were having all meals together and did often things outside by the fire together.
The camp is located in the very north of Norway, surrounded by the beautiful Scandinavian landscape. Javier tells us that the filming was in June, so it was never dark outside. The end scene for example, were they’re dancing, was actually filmed two o’clock in the morning.
One thing we noticed while watching the film was the quite professional sort of directing the group in the reconstruction of Torje. So we really want to know if he had experiences with directing before.
Torje: Yes, I was actually going to theatre school while we were doing the reconstruction. Also I’m very fascinated by directing and ended up with directing a little play. So thats something I really enjoy doing. Maybe I showed something of it in the reconstructions, through it was obviously quite different from acting in theatre.
We think that’s really impressive and want to a little more about the future plans of him and Jenny. Torje tells us, that he is actually producing and studying music, and likes doing stuff that has to do with art. Jenny is also very interested in the film business and works with documentary films. Recently she got the funding for her first movie. Quite inspiring young people.
Last but not least we want to know about one big thing:
The film actually gives us much hope and there are also a few „happy moments“. Did you plan making a movie that should spend hope and courage or was it something that grew while producing it?
CJ: No, I wanted this from the beginning. I feel that its very important, and I think the fact that the four who did the reconstructions all survived is a huge hope by itself. In addition It’s also a hope for me that there were young people looking to an event like this and learning from it. After the filming some of the participants said: „This was a act of terror that hit all generations and we have to deal with it“. And I feel that is true for all of us.
We want to thank for the interview, but before we’re leaving Javér also wants to know something from us: what we can take with us from the film.
We actually can take very much with us from the movie. But the biggest part is maybe that we are stronger together and should be grateful for being together. We saw all this young people in the movie who are part of the next generation, which we are too, and so it is in our hands to change something. And when we talk about and deal with things some happened in the past, like the Utøya event, we are maybe more able to do better in the future.
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