PETALING JAYA, Jan 2 — 72 minutes.

That was how long the horror of July 22 on the island of Utøya, northwest of Oslo in Norway, lasted as a lone gunman attacked a Norwegian Labour Party youth camp attended by approximately 600 teenagers.

Two hours after a car bomb attack in Oslo that left eight dead and 209 injured, Anders Behring Breivik arrived on the secluded island and began his rampage, eventually killing 69 and injuring at least 110.

For Norwegian director and screenwriter Erik Poppe, there was one common message from all the survivors based on countless interviews with more than 40 survivors of the tragedy.

It was how the hellish 72 minutes of being constantly attacked and hunted down on a small island felt like an eternity.

"I wanted to see if I could capture time as an element and bring it into the story as a character, and to portray it on the screen,” said the 58-year-old.

"Time itself is the hardest thing to capture because as soon as you make a cut, you split up the time… the feeling... the sense of time, and that’s why I needed to do it in one single take.”

As a father to teenage daughters, Poppe said the film left him despairing at how he would have dealt with the situation. — Pic courtesy of IFFAM

And the result is a tragically immersive and extremely uncomfortable film, shot in one single take, to depict the sheer terror as encountered by Breivik’s victims that fateful day.

The challenging and unusual approach left critics fawning over Utøya July 22 as it continues to rake up accolades and praise from the film festival circuit, the last after being screened at the International Film Festival & Award Macao (IFFAM) recently.

"I do think for us to strip down the way we tell stories, is to simplify more and more as it is probably the most powerful way of telling a story.”

A mammoth task lay ahead as Poppe went on to realise his vision.

The biggest hurdle was to find young amateur actors who had never done anything before a camera but had the capacity to perform the emotions in a truthful way.

"You can pretend you’re under attack, but it doesn’t work for a film like this, you need to fear for your life – not just as an actor but almost as a human being, and to be able to express that."

When he began to chance on extraordinary talents especially Andrea Berntzen, who plays the fictitious central character of Kaja, Poppe knew his vision was possible. "When I found her I felt like that was the defining moment of this production.”

Berntzen, though new, produced a stunning performance that left Poppe convinced of his vision. — Pic courtesy of IFFAM

And thus began more than three months of rehearsals, six days a week, "almost like a theatre play,” Poppe described before filming began, over five consecutive days of one-take filming sessions.

"I felt the fear of not being able to succeed in being able to tell the story in a truthful way as I wanted. I feared the need to cut or choose between days to cover cuts, but it worked."

Poppe’s effort to reproduce the horrors of that day, to offer a truthful account included bringing on board the survivors from the island.

"Sixty-nine kids were killed but more than 400 survived, and so many of those are incapable of doing anything today.

"For those who were strong enough, they supported me by being by my side, and it made it easier to do the film -- I made the film for them.”

Poppe met and spent time with many of the families of the 69 killed as well as the survivors, to discuss their take on the film.

"They read the script before anyone else, and were by my side when I was doing rehearsals and even when I was filming,” he said, adding they helped with the authenticity of the subject by pointing out details that were off.

And with such a dark, heavy topic to deal with, the well-being of all involved was taken seriously, with a team of psychologists on standby at all times for the actors, extras, and crew.

"It’s one thing to learn about pain, another to film it,” Poppe told Malay Mail, adding that being a father of teenage daughters, the film left him in despair wondering how he would have reacted on receiving a phone call from them, as many on Utøya had attempted in a futile effort to connect with their families and loved ones as the massacre was underway.

Recalling the horrors of being in the thick of the action as a photojournalist with Reuters in areas of conflict including Afghanistan, Congo and Somalia, Poppe’s vision ironically stems from his positive attitude towards life even while reliving the nightmare of the incident.

"The only thing we should worry about is the climate, if not we’re all (expletive)!” he laughed. "It’s about the conversation we should be having, as individuals, to remind us that we do have a role, a voice and we can change the world with our behaviours and how we look at other people.

"I wanted the film not only to be what happened in Utøya, but through the victims’ stories, telling of the other incidents,” he said rattling off a list of shootings and mass terror attacks around the world since then.

"I didn’t believe when I made the film that it was going to travel so far, I thought it almost of my most local story, I’m happy to see that the film has been traveling with the universal message I indeed meant it for.”

Honours aside, Poppe, who concluded a PhD as a research fellow at the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and as an Associated Professor at the Norwegian Film School during the shooting of the film, is looking into how best to tell his future stories.

"I think there’s still a variety of ways to tell our stories differently than we used to. Almost all movies are told in the same way and I still wonder why as a film-maker. We need to develop ways to tell our stories in movies.”