Parky at the Pictures (DVD 7/2/2019)

With the Germans using Norwegian ports to launch attacks on North Atlantic convoys, exiles were trained in Scotland for sabotage missions. However, Operation Martin Red in March 1943 was met with stern resistance at Toftefjord on the island of Rebbenesøya and Jan Baalsrud (Thomas Gullestad) was the only member of the party to evade capture. Having been shot in the foot, he swam by night across an expanse of freezing water to the next island of Værøy, where he is sheltered by compatriots living in remote houses by the water's edge. A midwife tends to his wounded foot and warns him that he needs to see a doctor quickly before frostbite and gangrene set in. 

Furious with senior officer Walter Wenders (Martin Kiefer) for failing to realise that there were 12 in the raiding party, Gestapo officer Kurt Stage (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) orders a manhunt and subjects prisoners to torture and prolonged periods in the icy saltwater to gauge whether it would have been possible for the fugitive to survive an attempted crossing. Such is his determination to prove his point and avoid reporting to SS chief Heinrich Himmler that he let Baalsrud slip through his fingers, Stage even plunges into the depths himself and is frustrated when he fails to last the supposed crossing time. 

Baalsrud is protected for the night by Morten Hansen (Marius Lien) and his wife, Ragnhild (Aggie Peterson), and young daughter, Margareth (Tiril Holthe Harnang). Ragnhild informs him that one of his group has already died and that the others are to be executed. But Margareth tries to cheer him up, after he tells her about his map-making travels and she makes him a drawing to keep in his pocket. A fishing boat takes him further along the coast and, after one crew member carries him ashore to keep him dry, Baalsrud is presented with a set of skis to ease his cross-country passage to Lyngseidet. 

After a week on the run, Baalsrud slips over near the checkpoint where Stage is on patrol and the German hands him his trapper hat before realising he's his quarry. He sends a plane to scour the snow-covered countryside and Baalsrud is caught in the ensuing avalanche. Waking in a snow-blind daze, he staggers on until he collapses into the hut where Marius Grønvoll (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen) lives with his sisters, Gudrun (Marie Blokhus) and Hanna (Julia Bache-Wiig), and the latter's son, Ottar (Sigurd Heine Krogh). They bandage his eyes and feet and Gudrun is asking about his travels in the hayloft on Day 13 when Stage and Wenders come to the farm to conduct a search. Fortunately, Baalsrud is able to hide from Stage, but the Grønvolls decide to move him on and transport him by sledge to a waiting boat that takes him across to a hut at Revdal. 

Dubbing his new lodging, `the Savoy Hotel', Baalsrud has nightmares about being captured and, as the pain in his foot grows worse, he begins to hallucinate and imagines himself dancing to a jazz band. As Stage (who has found Margareth's map in the snow) continues to search, the locals take pride in ministering to a man who has become a symbol of their resistance. However, Marius is prevented from returning to the hut and Baalsrud is forced to use his penknife to sever two blackened toes, one of which he presses between the planking of the wall. 

After 12 days in candlelit isolation, Baalsrud is relieved when Marius and three friends collect him on a sledge built from wood artfully hidden inside their rowing boat. The plan is to rendezvous with partisans from Manndalen, but they fail to arrive and Baalsrud is left under a large rock in a warm sleeping bag for them to find him. He draws strength from the Northern Lights glowing green in the night sky. But, a mix-up over locations leaves Baalsrud stranded and Marius has to return to the hideout with nurse Agnete Lanes (Mathilde Sofie Henriksen) to check he has survived. They are inspired by his fortitude and good humour, while Gudrun (who has developed a crush on him) can barely contain her joy when her brother brings back the good news. 

Despite the best efforts of Nils 'Nigo' Nilsen (Kim Jøran Olsen), they are forced to return to Manndalen in blizzard conditions and a desperate Baalsrud has a nightmare about the failed raid that resulted in him having to blow up a cargo of TNT. He wakes to find his foot being dressed by Aslak Fossvoll (Trond Peter Stamsø Munch) and Baalsrud tells him how the mission was betrayed by quisling Håkon Sørensen (Nikolas Steffensen Krane). However, he is determined to make it to Sweden to repay the courage of those who have helped him and he dreams Margareth pays him a visit in his cave to urge him to ensure that their sacrifices have not been in vain. 

It's now May and the snows are starting to melt. Moreover, Stage is becoming increasingly fraught, as he has filed a false report that Baalsrud has been accounted for and he is dismayed to see his feat being extolled in a Nazi newsreel. On Day 59, Baalsrud is placed on another sleigh so that the Baal brothers can smuggle him across the frontier with their reindeer herd. Four days later, they lash him to the strongest animal and make a charge to cross at Kilpisjärvi. In his haste to leave the Savoy, however, Marius had left Gudrun's scarf behind and they are captured when they return to retrieve it. Thus, Stage is able to intercept them and interrogate them, as Baalsrud hurtles towards safety. 

Were it not the truth, the climactic miracle involving a doughty white reindeer and Christophe Beck's pulsating score would feel faintly preposterous. But Zwart stages the dash for Sweden with a Hollywood flourish that will have Manchester United fans believing more fervently than ever in messianic Norwegians. A fade to black takes us back to Shetland, where Baalsrud meets the recruits he is preparing to train in order to end the madness and closing captions inform us that Stage was executed for war crimes in 1947, while Marius and Agnete raised five children on the family farm and Gudrun finally married in the 1960s. 

As befits a reluctant hero who always believed that those who sheltered him displayed the greater courage, Baalsrud is self-effacingly played by Thomas Gullestad. But, while he suffers with disconcerting conviction, his character is so sketchily drawn that he becomes something of what Alfred Hitchcock would have called a MacGuffin. Despite being suitably hissable, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is similarly unable to flesh out Kurt Stage, as too little is made of both his sadistic brutality and the dilemma he faces about making a false report to the Nazi hierarchy. Indeed, considering this is essentially an Arctic thriller, there's little sense of jeopardy, as Zwart and Skavlan place more emphasis on Baalsrud's superhuman survival instincts than the peril faced by himself and his protectors. 

Given that the Dutchman has One Night at McCool's (2001), Agent Cody Banks (2003) and such superfluous retools like The Pink Panther 2 (2009) and The Karate Kid (2010) on his filmography, this represents a marked improvement. Geir Hartly Andreassen's photography is exceptional and he ably conveys the implacability of the landscape and the magnitude of the task facing Baalsrud's deliverers. However, while he overdoes the visual trickery in suggesting his disorientation, Zwart makes effective use of the confined spaces in the cabin, under `Gentleman's Rock' and in the cave. But those familiar with Ni Liv - which was voted the greatest Norwegian film of all time in 1991 - will continue to plump for the original and the best.

It's curious how often films about the same subject are produced in glorious isolation and released almost simultaneously. In the early part of 2018, James Marsh's The Mercy coincided with Simon Rumley's Crowhurst to offer differing perspectives on a doomed round the world yachtsman. Then, Utøya July 22, Erik Poppe's account of the massacre perpetrated in the summer of 2011 by Norwegian neo-Nazi Anders Breivik emerged slightly before Paul Greengrass's 22 July. But the English-language feature reached UK cinemas first and few were left unmoved by this meticulous reconstruction. However, Greengrass's film often feels like one of those re-enactments that documentarists often employ to fill in the gaps between the talking heads and the archive clips.

As a ferry brings teenagers to the island Utøya for a camp run by the Workers' Youth League on 21 July 2011, Anders Behring Breivik (Anders Danielsen Lie) mixes fertiliser and fuel in an outbuilding at Vålstua Farm. While 17 year-old Viljar Hanssen (Jonas Strand Gravli) meets up with old friends and sings around a campfire, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (Ola G. Furuseth) consults his aides about what he is going to say when he addresses the gathering the next day. Meanwhile, Breivik drives into Oslo and attracts the attention of his mother (Hilde Olausson) when he returns to their flat without greeting her. 

The next morning, having updated his website, Breivik dons a police flak jacket and sneaks out while his mother is watching television. He drives his white van into the government quarter known as Regjeringskvartalet and parks at the back of a building close to PM's office. Having lit a long fuse, he puts on a riot helmet and walks calmly to another van and sets off for Utøya, as security officers notice the vehicle on their CCTV screens. The detonation occurs just as a guard reaches the van and Stoltenberg hears the explosion before being whisked away to a safe zone. 

As Breivik listens to news reports on the radio and ignores a phone call from his mother, camp supervisor Monica Bøsei (Monica Borg Fure) urges the delegates to check their parents are okay and Viljar is relieved to hear his mother and father are fine, as they work in the area. Meanwhile, Breivik arrives at the Utøya ferry and poses as a cop who has been dispatched from the capital to secure the island. Monica allows him on to the boat without asking to see ID and he guns her and the head of security down almost as soon as he sets foot on the island. 

Naturally, the kids panic at the sound of gunfire and start running through the woods. Having gunned down those he finds inside the camp headquarters, Breivik stalks his quarry and fires at anything within range. Finding his younger brother, Torje (Isak Bakli Aglen), Viljar manages to make a quick call to his mother, Christin (Maria Bock), who speeds to the coast with her husband, Sveinn (Thorbjørn Harr), in order to protect her offspring. However, they are held at a roadblock, as police boats cross to the island. Viljar and Torje find themselves part of a group hunkering on a cliff ledge and they have to jump to the beach when Breivik finds them. Urging his sibling to get to safety, Viljar is hit several times and had just realised that he has lost the sight in his right eye when the first landing party spots him. 

Helicoptered away by paramedics after Breivik is coerced into surrendering in the woods, Viljar fights for his life as his parents locate Torje in the survivor centre. Questioned by the police, Breivik claims to be part of a coup and warns that a third attack will follow unless Stoltenberg puts an end of immigration and enforced multiculturalism. He is taken to Oslo for further interrogation after requesting Geir Lippestad (Jon Øigarden) as his lawyer. Dutybound to accept the case, Lippestad informs Breivik that he thoroughly disapproves of his actions and is very much part of the élite he supposedly despises. Yet, when his client asks for medical attention for a scratch on his hand caused by a piece of flying skull, Lippestad has no option than to make a plea. 

While Viljar undergoes extensive surgery, the hospital uses his phone to contact his parents and they arrive as police raid Breivik's flat and find his computer. He tells the interrogator that he is part of an organisation called the Knights Templar and is amused when he learns that Stoltenberg is listening to him. However, he remains poker-faced and continues to insist that he has sparked a class war that will reclaim Norway for its indigenous citizens. Consequently, Stoltenberg has to take him at his word when he addresses the press and vows to use the rule of law to preserve democracy. But he is shaken by the news that there have been eight fatalities in Oslo and 69 on Utøya, as well as over 200 confirmed as wounded. 

The surgeon tells the Hanssens the extent of Viljar's injuries before letting them see him and Christin sobs, as she holds her son's hand at his bedside. Further operations to remove bullet fragments close to the brain stem are only partially successful and the family has to wait before another attempt can be made. Meanwhile, Stoltenberg calls for a public inquiry to see how the police failed to identify Breivik as a threat, while he gives Lippestad a version of his childhood that is contradicted by the facts gleaned by his support team. 

Fighting revulsion with each new revelation, Lippestad accepts the brief and agrees with his team that their only defence can be incipient insanity. However, he gains some insight into Breivik's background when he visits his mother in her apartment and she begs not to testify because everyone will know who she is. She also lets slip that her son has a point when he says Norway has changed beyond all recognition. Naturally, Breivik is delighted with Lippestad's strategy, as it means he can speak in court and has a chance of being confined to a secure hospital rather than a prison. But Lippestad is growing increasingly concerned for the safety of his family, after they receive phone calls accusing him of being a Nazi lover. At 

One of the survivors, Lara (Seda Witt), comes to visit Viljar and Torje remembers his brother fouling her during a football match. Christin is sorry to hear that her sister was killed and invites her to come back whenever she wants. Shortly afterwards, Viljar comes out of his coma and not only has to deal with the grim statistics, but also some nightmares and the pain of his rehabilitation. He is pleased to see Lara, however, who had been in the shower block when the shooting started. She promises to return and Viljar also encourages Christin to continue her campaign to become mayor of Svalbard and even appears with her on Skype when she wins. However, he sees Breivik on television and is dismayed by the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia made by a pair of forensic psychiatrists and needs reassuring that he won't be released to come after him. 

Lippestad promises Breivik he will try and persuade the court to let him speak, but informs him we won't be able to cross-examine Stoltenberg, as he is on trial not Norway. But Breivik feels he has handed the initiative to the families and decides to change his plea and reaffirm his status as a soldier in a war. Having just been asked to withdraw his daughter from her school, Lippestad is under considerable pressure. However, he has to carry out his client's wishes and instructs his team to look into far right politics and find witnesses who will show that Breivik is not alone in his beliefs. 

Viljar returns to Svalbad, some 2000 km north of Oslo, and has to adjust to normality. But, while Sveinn returns to his wildlife sanctuary and Christin begins her term as mayor, Viljar becomes frustrated at being wrapped in cotton wool and goes on a late-night snowmobile ride that culminates in a car chase with his parents and a crash. He is unharmed and bemoans his fate when Christin pleads with him to take care of himself. However, Sveinn has also reached the end of his tether and he refuses to return to Oslo for a pre-trial briefing. 

In a bid to understand Breivik's motivation, Lippestad meets with a leading white supremacist who warns that people across Europe and the United States have had enough of being told what to do by bleeding heart liberals and that the day of judgement is close at hand. As the trial approaches, however, Viljar phones Lara to confess that he feels unable to give evidence and he feels he would be more useful trying to help Torje come to terms with what he has witnessed. The families are furious that Breivik has been afforded the opportunity to turn the court into a soapbox and prosecuting lawyers Inga Bejer Engh (Ulrikke Hansen Døvigen) and Siv Hallgren (Anja Maria Svenkerud) vow to deny him any leeway when proceedings open under Judge Wenche Arntzen (Tone Danielsen).

Much to the disgust of the families, Breivik is allowed to make a statement that presents him as a patriot warrior defending Norway. On hearing this on the television, Viljar asks his physio to help him walk unaided so he can go into court and confront the man who had ruined his life. As he confides to his parents, however, he really wants to beat him to a pulp and Sveinn suggests that testifying might be a way to exact his revenge. Breivik is furious when his mentor takes the stand to belittle him and curses his mother for her cowardice. But he regains his composure in time to hear Lara wonder why anyone could be so afraid of her because she is a refugee from a war zone.

Arriving in Oslo, Viljar goes to see Lena, who is working as a waitress. He promises to stay strong and gets annoyed with himself when he cries on the stand. But he manages a joke about being blind in the eye closest to Breivik, so that he doesn't have to look at him. However, he also reminds him that he still has dreams and something to live for while he is going to rot in jail alone and despised. He will continue to honour the memory of the friends he lost and strive to make society fairer and better. As he fixes his gaze on Breivik, he sense he has got under his defences and left him something to think about in his cell. 

After reaching a unanimous verdict, the bench sentences Breivik to solitary confinement for as long as he is a threat to society. Stoltenberg meets the families after the inquiry identifies police lapses and they urge him to remain in office because the country needs him. Lippestad visits Breivik for a final time and refuses to shake his hand in averring that he failed to ignite a conflagration and that future generations will continue to resist fanatics who threaten their peaceful existence. Closing captions reveal that Breivik remains in Skien Prison, while Viljar is studying law, Lippestad continues to practice and Stoltenberg is now Secretary General of NATO. 

Anyone familiar with Bloody Sunday (2002), United 93 (2006) and Captain Phillips (2013) will know what to expect from this conscientious, if detached vérité reconstruction, which draws on Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad's book, One of Us. Greengrass is as much interested in how the nation responded to the outrage, as he is in Breivik's ideology and methodology. But he tilts the balance by casting Anders Danielsen Lie as Breivik, as he had played another calculating killer in Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31st (2011) and knows how to make such a reprehensible character seem compelling. Thus, no matter how gutsy newcomer Jonas Strand Gravli appears as Viljar, he is always in Lie's shadow, especially as Greengrass makes his recovery feel like the inspirational heart of a small-screen disease of the week movie.

Indeed, melodrama seeps into the sometimes morally dubious proceedings far too often for a film intent on seeming so gruellingly authentic. Sune Martin's delicate, but artful score is particularly culpable, although the dialogue often lacks finesse, most notably in the thick-eared references to extremism being on the rise in Britain and America and the use of a banner on Utøya echoing the Corbynista slogan, `For the many, not the few.' Incidents like the snowmobile pursuit also sit awkwardly, as Greengrass struggles to give equal weight to Viljar's recovery, Stoltenberg's crisis of conscience and Lippestad's determination to due his duty (in the face of threats that are never mentioned again after one emotive scene). 

Clearly, Greengrass has to insert some human drama to prevent this merely becoming a Nordic noir procedural. But, despite the ensemble excellence and the proficiency of Pål Ulvik Rokseth's cinematography and William Goldenberg's editing, this too frequently feels like an exercise in head-shaking gravitas and ostentatious restraint to achieve the desired level of gut-wrenching revulsion and fury.

It's almost inevitable that film-makers will have to tinker with the facts when recreating an actual event for the screen. But alarm bells start ringing the moment a caption defends a screenplay's use of personal testimonies to provide its own version of the truth. Given that the atrocities committed by Anders Breivik devastated his compatriots, Norwegian Erik Poppe must have known that he would be treading on eggshells in making Utøya - July 22. Yet, by focusing on a fictional character caught up in the 2011 massacre on the island in the Tyrifjorden lake to the north-west of Oslo, screenwriters Siv Rajendram Eliassen and Anna Bache-Wiig consistently strain credibility. Moreover, by giving the impression that the action is taking place in a single continuous shot, Poppe draws attention to his own artistry in much the same way that Greengrass did in imposing his patented brand of docu-realism on 22 July. 

For those unconvinced by the need to dramatise these brutal events, the release of two films on the subject in such a short space of time will seem particularly disconcerting. But they will be even more perplexed by the fact that Poppe had opted for such an immersive approach that places the audience at the heart of the mayhem. This viscerality is clearly well intentioned, as the film is designed to be a memorial to the 69 who lost their lives rather than provide exploitative entertainment. But it has the effect of making the viewer feel as though they have been pitched into a ghastly video game or virtual reality environment. Consequently, this is more akin to a `last girl' horror movie than an authentic recreation.  

As captions set the scene for the CCTV footage of the bomb going off in the government quarter of the capital around 3pm on Friday 22 July, the action cuts to Kaja (Andrea Berntzen) looking earnestly into the lens and stating that no one will ever understand and that it's important to listen. In fact, she is not addressing the audience, but is chatting to her mother on a phone headset some two hours after the explosion. She promises to keep an eye on her younger sister, Emilie (Elli Rhiannon Müller Osbourne), and gives her a ticking off in their tent for squealing with some boys on her way back from a swim when their friend, Oda (Jenny Svennevig), is worried about her mother's safety. 

The girls are attending a summer camp organised by the Workers' Youth League and Kaja breaks the news of the Oslo attack to the napping Magnus (Aleksander Holmen) before joining her friend, Petter (Brede Fristad), to reassure the frightened Kristine (Ingeborg Enes) that everything will be okay because they are perfectly safe on a remote island. They are joined at a waffle stand by Caroline (Ada Eide) and Issa (Sorosh Sadat), who hopes that the incident in the capital is not the work of Islamic terrorists. Kaja and Petter get into a good-natured argument about the presence of Norwegian peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan before they are disturbed by the sound of what they take to be firecrackers. 

Screaming kids running out of the woods convinces them otherwise and, as panic sets in, they take refuge in a one of the camp buildings. As no one is sure what is happening, they huddle in the corridor and speculate, as the sound of gunshots gets closer. Kaja remembers that Emilie is alone in their tent and wants to go and find her. But, when they decide to flee into the woods to avoid being sitting targets, Kaja finds herself having to console the terrified Kristine, who has hurt her foot. 

Hunkering down in the undergrowth, the teenagers try to fathom what's going on. Magnus calls the police and Petter grabs the phone to ask if someone is conducting a security drill on the island. Kaja leaves a message for Emile and tries to keep a lid on her emotions, as youths run past them and the shots continue to ring out. Someone suggests heading for the beach and swimming for the mainland, but they decide the water will be too cold. Kristine is told to stop whining about her sore foot, as Kaja calls her mother and tells her that they are being targeted. Another lad takes cover with them and states that the police are shooting at them. However, he doesn't know how many cops there are or why they have gone on the rampage. 

Desperate to find her sister, Kaja returns to the field full of tents. She finds Tobias (Magnus Moen) waiting for his brother in a bright yellow jacket and she tells him to take it off and hide in the woods. There is no sign of Emilie in the tent and Kaja finds her phone under her quilt. Beating a retreat into the trees, she calls home and promises her mother that she will find her sibling and bursts into tears. However, she is soon confronted with the reality of the situation when she stops to help an injured girl (Solveig Koløen Birkeland), who has been shot in the shoulder. Removing her sweatshirt, Kaja tries to staunch the bleeding and keep up a conversation to stop the girl from drifting off. But she dies in Kaja's arms and, when Caroline finds them, she is shocked to realise that she knows the victim. 

Unable to persuade her friend to leave the dead girl, Kaja rushes off towards the lake. Red flare smoke billows through the branches and the sound of a helicopter can be heard overhead, as she reaches the narrow shoreline. Several small groups are cowering in nooks in the rock face and they refuse to make room for her in case they are exposed. Wading into the water, Kaja sees a corpse floating a short distance away and she stumbles before staggering her way around a number of inlets before recognising Magnus. He is squeezed together with Even (Daniel Sang Tran) and Silje (Mariann Gjerdsbakk), who are reluctant to allow Kaja to stay. Silje wonders why no one has come to rescue them and, when Kaja and Magnus dismiss her suggestion of swimming across the lake, she joins a large party making its way in the direction from which Kaja has just come. 

Appreciating her fears for Emilie, Magnus tries to take Kaja's mind off the situation by asking what she'll do when she gets home. She decides she would take a bath, while he invites her to Stavangar to the best kebab shop in the country. When he inquires about what she wants to do when she's older, Kaja reveals that she hopes to become an MP and he jokes that he would love to become a celebrity. Kaja volunteers that she belongs to a choir and Magnus cajoles her into singing Cyndi Lauper's `True Colours'. The song is heard by Oda, who calls down from a ledge above the pair and Kaja jumps up to look for her. However, the shooter (seen for only the second time as a distant silhouette) spots her and opens fire and she presses herself against the rocks in sheer terror. 

Feeling guilty that she has not found her sister, Kaja starts to wade back around the rocks. She finds Tobias in his yellow jacket and Magnus urges her not to blame herself for his death. He also reminds her that it will serve no useful purpose if she is shot and he tries to pull her into the cover of a bush. However, shots rain down again, as Magnus notices a boat speeding towards them. Several kids emerge from hiding and make a dash for the boat. Among them is Emilie and she implores the wounded Kaja to stay calm because they are going to survive. 

The first in a series of captions confirms that the Utøya ordeal lasted for 72 minutes. In all, 77 people were killed in the two incidents, while 99 were seriously injured and over 300 suffered massive psychological trauma. The unnamed `attacker' claimed that he had unleashed Judgement Day to warn the Labour Party to change its policies and swore in court that he would have no hesitation in committing the same acts if given the chance. A commission on the events of 22 July concluded that the Oslo bombing could have been prevented and that reaction times to events on the island were inadequate. 

Only then does Poppe reveal that his story concerns fictional characters in fact-based re-enactments before he issues a warning about the rise of right-wing extremism in Europe and the Western world. He then allows the entire credit sequence to pass before signing the following statement: `This is a work of fiction - based on reality, but not a documentary. Its basis is one truth. Others may exist.'

The appearance of such a craven admission long after the majority of cinemagoers would have left the auditorium is despicable. Surely this rider should have been placed before the fabricated action commenced to prevent viewers from gaining the impression that they were about to watch a faithful reconstruction of the 22 July assault. By burying it in the closing crawl, Poppe and his producers (who have opted not to mention Breivik by name and reduce him to a shadowy bogeyman) prove disingenuous at best. The distributors might also have reconsidered releasing the film the week before Halloween, especially as Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980) was also set on a lakeside summer camp.

Notwithstanding such conscious calculations and thoughtless errors of judgement, this is a slickly made stalk`n'slash picture that has Martin Otterbeck's scurrying around with the laudably committed cast in order to generate a sense of immediacy and suspense that is reinforced by Gisle Tveito's potent sound design. The debuting Andrea Berntzen is excellent as Kaja, as she remains so firmly in the moment that she persuades even the most sceptical viewer to forget that they are watching a meticulously planned movie. But her primarily purpose is to give the audience someone to root for, as the carnage takes place around her.

By having her search for her sister, Kaja also gives Poppe an excuse to cover plenty of ground and encounter fellow campers taking markedly different approaches to staying out of range. But the sleight of hand is never as cannily concealed as the edit points joining the best footage taken from the single takes filmed over five consecutive days. This isn't the first time that Poppe has melodramatised serious events, as he had drawn on his own experiences as a war zone photojournalist for A Thousand Times Good Night (2013). Here, however, he oversteps the moral mark in a manner that the occasionally cumbersome Greengrass just about managed to avoid.

Mention a character couped up in a confined space with only a phone to communicate with the outside world and most people will think of Stephen Knight's Tom Hardy vehicle, Locke (2013). But even before Swede Gustav Möller made his debut feature, The Guilty, a couple of pictures have dwelt on emergency service centres taking frantic calls from imperilled women. In her BAFTA-nominated short, Operator (2015), Caroline Bartleet kept the camera close to Kate Dickie, as she tries to keep the terrified Vicky McClure calm after she reports a house fire. But Brad Anderson opted to allow Halle Berry to take the law into her own hands and venture outside her command post in The Call (2013), after she is given a chance to make amends for a botched operation when she receives a call from kidnap victim Abigail Breslin.

The redemptive theme recurs in the 30 year-old Möller's scenario, as Copenhagen cop Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren) finds himself consigned to call duty after he is suspended from the beat after a reckless action that exposes his tendency to act first and think afterwards. However, he is convinced that this will be his last night behind a desk, as he expects to be cleared by the next day's disciplinary hearing after his partner, Rashid (Omar Shargawi), gives evidence on his behalf. But he has to get through his last shift, alongside colleagues he views with a mild disdain that is nothing compared to the contempt he feels towards the majority of his callers. 

Based in a communal office at Emergency East, Asger has little sympathy with a man suffering the effects of a bad trip or a BMW driver who has just been mugged by an Eastern European prostitute in the Red Light District. Indeed, while chatting to his boss, Bo (Jacob Lohmann) about the incident, he suggests leaving the indignant victim to stew for a while. Bo wishes Asger luck with his hearing the next morning, but he refuses to speak to journalist Tanya Brix (Laura Bro) when she calls on his mobile and he gets a ticking off from the duty supervisor for taking private calls during working hours. 

Lost in his own thoughts and oblivious to his lack of people skills, Asger doesn't hear an incoming 112 call and thinks Iben Östergård (Jessica Dinnage) is crank calling him or is under the influence, as she is highly evasive in her answers. As he is about to hang up, however, Asger realises Iben is in a car with a driver who thinks she has phoned her young daughter and he asks a series of questions requiring yes or no answers to determine that she has been abducted in a white van and is travelling on the motorway in the North Zealand district of the Danish capital.

Calling the dispatch office to get a squad car sent to the scene, Asger asks the operator (Jeanette Lindbæk) to patch him through to the pursuing cops and listen anxiously, as they pull over a vehicle matching Iben's vague description. However, the driver is alone and Asger is frustrated that Iben has rung off and that he is unable to do anything to help her (and himself, as a little headset heroism the night before his hearing could only prove beneficial). He uses his computer to find a landline registered in Iben's name and gets through to her eight year-old daughter, Mathilde (Katinka Evers-Jahnsen), who is alone with her infant brother, Oliver. She tells Asger that she heard screaming in the baby's room and saw her father, Michael Berg (Johan Olsen), dragging her mother away by the hair. Clearly afraid of her father (who no longer lives with them), Mathilde mentions a knife before accepting Asger's advice to sit with her brother until help comes. 

Calling Zealand dispatch, Asger loses patience with the female operator, who reminds him to do his job rather than overstepping the mark. As he seethes with impotent frustration, his colleague, Torben (Morten Thunbo), can be seen munching on a sandwich in the blurred background. He is utterly unconcerned with Asger's problem, but accepts his apology for having acted like a bear with a sore head during his time at the call centre. Moreover, he advises Asger that he can log out of the main room computer and retain access to previous callers if he moves into the side office for a bit of privacy. 

Asger needs to be out of earshot to ask Bo if he can send a car to Michael's place and break in if necessary to search for clues as to where he might be taking Iben. However, Bo is appalled that he would suggest such a breach of procedure and asks if he would like to speak to another psychiatrist, as he knows he has been having problems with the one assigned to him. Asger declines the offer and accepts the ticking off. But he doesn't appreciate the extension of good wishes to his partner, Patricia, because she has left him and he is trying to keep a lid on that particular problem until the hearing is over. 

As he tries to think of something to do to keep tabs on the van, Asger has to deal with a call from a clubber who has been assaulted by a bouncer. When Michael hangs up on him, Asger calls Rashid and catches him drinking in a city centre bar. He reminds him that he has to give evidence and that his defence rests on the version of events on which they have agreed. But Rashid is afraid that he will say something wrong and perjure himself and ruin Asger's career. Telling him to pull himself together, Asger sends Rashid to Michael's house, just as he gets a call from Mathilde. The police have arrived and she wants to know if it will be safe to let them in. Asger asks her to pass the phone to the male cop (Peter Christoffersen), who stays online as he searches the house. However, he is appalled to find that Oliver has been sliced open and left for dead and Asger is left alone in the dark office with his own imagination and a growing fear for Iben. 

Rather than report the case to the duty officer, Asger remains determined to impose himself on the situation from a muddled sense of duty, machismo and self-interest. However, his professionalism is immediately compromised by his rudeness to a woman requesting an ambulance having been knocked off her bicycle. Pulling down the blinds, Asger calls Michael and informs him that Mathilde is covered in his son's blood. He is cross that she has disobeyed him and entered the bedroom and asks what will happen now. When Asger tells him he will go to prison, Michael (who has already done time for GBH) sounds desperate. But Asger refuses to allow him to play the victim and loses his patience and bawls out that scum like him should be executed. 

Unsurprisingly, Michael hangs up and Asger is about to call him back when Rashid arrives at the house. He finds the door open and the apartment almost empty. Asger orders him to search through the unopened post for a possible destination address and dismisses his partner's protestations that they will get into trouble for exceeding their jurisdiction. More in hope than expectation, Asger dials Iben and, when she picks up, he tells her to put on her seatbelt and pull on the handbrake. 

When the line goes dead, he paces the room and is relieved when Iben calls back. However, she has been overpowered and locked in the back of the van. Trying to help her protect herself, Asger tells her to find something she can use as a weapon and she opens a box of bricks that Michael has for his job. Briefly dipping out to alert Zealand to her whereabouts, Asger attempts to keep Iben from fixating on the idea that Michael is going to kill her by asking about her favourite place. She tells him about visits to the Blue Planet aquarium with her children and how peaceful it looks underwater. But, as she continues, it suddenly dawns on Asger that Iben has killed Oliver to remove the snakes that have been giving him tummy ache and he has to listen powerlessly, as Michael stops the van and Iben beats him with the brick before making her getaway. 

Staring into the abyss, as he realises he has made a mess of things and that this will reflect badly on his overall conduct, Asger tries to think of a worthwhile course of action. He calls Michael again and learns that he is at the psychiatric centre where Iben has been receiving treatment. Asger asks where she has gone, but Michael has no idea. He only knows that his ex-wife is unaware that she has murdered their son and that she will be crushed if she discovers the truth. When Michael rings off, Asger smashes a table lamp in fury at having misjudged things so badly and landed himself in fresh trouble. So, when Rashid reports back, Asger tells him that he doesn't have to lie to save his skin the next day, as he was the one who shot and killed the suspect they had been confronting. But, as his partner reminds him, they have already conspired to pervert the course of justice and that he has to stick with the lie to protect himself. 

When another operator pops his head into the office to tell Asger that Iben is on the line, he decides to take it in the main control room, as there is no longer any point in trying to conceal his actions. She has wandered on to a bridge over the motorway and seems set to jump because she has realised what she has done to Oliver. But Asger tells her to stay where she is and, with the other duty officers listening in, he confesses that he also killed somebody when trying to do the right thing. As she listens, he essentially sacrifices himself in a bid to save her and he is relieved when Zealand lets him know that they have Iben in custody and the operator even congratulates him on doing a good job.

Walking out of the control room in a stupor, Asger calls somebody on his mobile, as he stands in the corridor. We don't get to eavesdrop on the call or discover whether he is phoning his wife, Rashid, his psychiatrist or his lawyer. All we know is that Asger is a beaten and broken man, who has learned the hard way that rules exist for a reason and that his badge does not make him a superhero who can act like a maverick with impunity. The contrast couldn't be starker with The Call's ludicrous closing scene, in which Halle Berry dispenses her own brand of justice on a perpetrator who also happens to be called Michael. But the chasm between these stories and operational reality is too wide for either picture to close with any credibility.

In fairness, recent Danish Film School alumbus Möller and co-writer Emil Nygaard Albertsen build the suspense in this real-time thriller with considerable skill, as they leak details about Iben and Michael's relationship, as well as Asger's complex backstory. Making a Dogme-esque virtue of his restricted budget, Möller also keeps Jasper Spanning's camera oppressively close to Jakob Cedergren's face, as he tries to focus on achieving a bloodless resolution to the crisis, while also keeping a lid on his own emotions, as he sees the career that defines his identity slowly slipping out of his grasp. 

But, for all Cedergren's intensity, the claustrophobic functionality of Gustav Pontoppidan's sets and the unobtrusive restraint of Carl Coleman and Caspar Hesselager's score, it's Oskar Skriver's sound design that makes this so compelling, as it uses the noises made by windscreen wipers, revving engines and tyres on wet roads to pitch the audience into the cruel and hostile world beyond the frame, while also reinforcing the cop's ineffectualness, as his often resourceful attempts to control the high-stakes situation merely exacerbate it. However, don't underestimate the value of silence to the maintenance of tension or the vocal skill of Cedergren's unseen co-stars.