May 10 2013 – We go about our busy over extended lives trying to make sense of all that must get done today, this week, this month. Never once realising that forces outside our control have set in motion plans that may forever change the trajectory of our future. And yet, the randomness of, sleeping in, not learning to swim, finances, and bad weather are all factors that will have a profound affect in very different ways for so many on July 22, 2011 in Oslo and on the island of Utoya in Norway.
When one thinks of Norway words like, peaceful, idyllic, safe, and joyful comes to mind. For Harald, Ritah, Leila, Avtandil, Natia, Hakon and Hajin, July 22, will usher in a reckoning so evil, the innocence and splendour that was Norway will be forever lost. And it is the randomness between fate and coincidence that people from different walks of life are now forever linked. The documentary, Wrong Time Wrong Place narrates the bargain we play with fate, and no matter how much we try to influence it, in the end we are left with what will be.
With limited mention of the killers name and picture, Director, John Appel conveyed this deep emotional tragedy of the Norway massacre through the excruciating re-telling by its victims. You will not find the senseless re-victimization through the additional glorification of murderer Anders Behring Breivik here. With each story, elements of chance and fate created the blueprint that found each protagonist in the eye of the storm on July 22nd.
For Harald, a Norwegian civil servant, the tragedy of losing his son in a base jumping accident was more than he could bear, not knowing it was just the beginning of his tragedy. And even with five weeks of holidays on the horizon, a twist of fate would put him at the epicentre of the car bomb explosion on July 22nd. One moment he’s tying up loose ends in the office and seconds later he’s lying under rubble trying to scream for help. Rattled graphic cell phone footage narrates the carnage in Oslo’s business district just as the spree begins.
Kutaisi, Georgia is a world away from Norway, but tragedy would befall the religious order of parents Leila and Avtandil life and takes their only daughter, Tamta. Missing pages in an old Georgian prophecy book fore told of a tragedy on Tamta’s 23rd birthday in a foreign country. This coupled with Tamta’s life long aversion to water and at the Young Socialist Summer Camp retreat on Utoya created the perfect storm. It’s human to demand answers from the universe and ascribe meaning to random events, but real life seldom provides answers to the questions raised in the face of unspeakable horror.
Verdict 4 / 5: Appel’s documentary addresses tragedies with the utmost respect and sensitivity. Gone are any semblance of gore and sensational reporting that suffocated many documentaries with meaningless sound bites and over-the-top histrionics. Gone too are the political leanings that drove this madness. As a result, the viewer is bathed in an emotional canvas of poignant, if not harrowing stories of survival in a way that resonates. In the end, 77 vibrant and beautiful lives were taken from this earth due to the evils of one man, and Wrong Time Wrong Place helps us to understand the role fate may have played in the lives of those that survived.
In Norway, the crossroads between fate and coincidence changed everything on July 22, 2011.
Genre: Documentary
Country: Netherlands
Language: English | Swedish | Georgian
Director: John Appel
Screenplay: John Appel
Cinematography: Erik van Empel
Runtime: 80 minutes
