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www.postmagazine.com 10 POST OCTOBER 2018 DIRECTOR'S CHAIR fter a long, distinguished career in documentaries that culminated in the award-winning documentary-style 2002 feature Bloody Sunday, direc- tor/producer/writer Paul Greengrass brought his considerable gifts to Hollywood — and much like Jason Bourne, the hero of the Bourne films which he helped make a world-wide blockbuster franchise, he hasn't stopped running since. He directed The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and Jason Bourne, received an Oscar nomination for his real-life 9/11 drama United 93, and made such critically acclaimed films as Captain Phillips, an Academy Award "Best Picture" nominee. His latest film, 22 July, is a harrow- ing and timely examination of political extremism, violence and survival. The film tells the true story of the aftermath of Norway's deadliest terrorist attack. On 22 July 2011, 77 people were killed when Anders Breivik, a far-right extremist det- onated a car bomb in Oslo before carry- ing out a mass shooting at a leadership camp for teens. The film uses the lens of one survivor's physical and emotional journey to portray the country's path to healing and reconciliation. Written and directed by Greengrass, 22 July is based on the book One of Us: The Story of an Attack in Norway — and Its Aftermath by Åsne Seierstad, and it debuts this month globally in select theaters and on Netflix. Here, in an exclusive Post interview, Greengrass talks about making the film and his love of post. What sort of film did you set out to make? "I wanted to make a film about the un- precedented way our politics are chang- ing in Britain, the US and across Europe. We're facing this reaction to globaliza- tion and that's driving countries towards the populist right, and incubated within all that are much, much darker forces that are being unleashed — nationalism, protectionism and so on. And incubat- ed within all that are all these neo-Nazi movements and the rise of the far right, terrorism and violence. Look at what's happening in liberal, democratic Sweden and the rise of the neo-Nazi party there. Same thing in Germany, with people marching and making Nazi salutes, and smashing stores of Jews, and it's hap- pening in Italy, the UK and the US. And the more I looked at all this and thought about it, the more important I felt it was to make this film about Breivik and what he did, and then how Norway react- ed to the terrorism and defended her democracy. It seemed to encapsulate all these elements, and I saw it as a way of talking about what happened to these people in this place and also a way of talking about what's going on in the world today." Do you see yourself as a political filmmaker and this as a political film? "No, I don't see it that way. I'm not duck- ing your point, but I don't like that label. To me, cinema can do many things, and does, right? The principal mission is to entertain, and I think I've made a few of those types of films. And I don't apolo- gize for that, as it goes back to the roots of cinema where it gave people with hard lives an escape for two hours. I also think cinema's an art form, and certain filmmakers make movies about their own private visions. But I also think cinema has to hold a mirror up to the world from time to time, and look at the world as it actually is, unflinchingly, truthfully, without loading the dice — which is pro- paganda, and try and capture a moment. So the reason I don't see myself as a po- litical filmmaker is that's just an agenda, whereas I see this as responding to the way the world's going, and exploring the microcosm so you can see the bigger truth, the DNA of the world today." There is obviously far more responsibility involved when a story is based on true events. What's your view of Breivik today? "I read his court testimony, and we used part of it in the film, and he laid out this articulate worldview — the need to rise up against the elite, the sham of how democracy is currently practiced, how immigration is the root of all evil. Those arguments were considered outré when he used them in court just a few years ago. Today, they're the standard currency of any populist politician anywhere. It's now mainstream, and that's the most troubling aspect of it." What were the main challenges in pulling it all together and how tough was the shoot? "It was hard and just keeping the crew and cast warm was a big challenge as it was very, very cold. There's very little light that far north and you have a very narrow window to shoot in. But the light is so beautiful, and it gives it this sepul- cher-like quality and look, which is very appropriate for this film. The director of photography, Pål Ulvik Rokseth, did an amazing job. He's a young guy who's going to have a big future. The other thing is that I wanted to shoot with an all-Norwegian crew and cast, so that the film had a Norwegian identity and soul, and they were all fantastic. On this one, I definitely had the desire as a filmmaker to reset myself. And it was interesting that it became a film where I had to go on my own, as it were, to Norway, and work with an entirely new cast and crew — none of whom I knew. Normally on a film when you reset, you still know a lot of people on the crew, and you'll know the actors and their work, even if you've never worked with them before. But this time, the actors were all working local PAUL GREENGRASS ON 22 JULY BY IAIN BLAIR A HARROWING AND TIMELY EXAMINATION OF POLITICAL EXTREMISM, VIOLENCE AND SURVIVAL A Greengrass, le, on-location