Page - 150 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/01

lying on the ground. The lives of the protagonists, who are not situated in a so- cial context, are represented as interchangeable. The film expects the audience to scrutinise the surreal and coarse portraits of the protagonists by focusing on the images and it refuses to provide narrative explanations. The existence of the characters depends on the fragile balance between (casual) empathy and submission to an invisible violence whose pervasive reach can be fragmentarily perceived. In this series of filmic productions dealing with war, genocide and terrorism, 22 July (Paul Grengrass, NO/IS 2018) deserves to be highlighted as a positive and hopeful contribution which resists resignation and makes a clear statement in favour of democracy and solidarity as means to overcome blind and arbitrary violence. The work reconstructs, by means of fiction, the terrorist attacks per- petrated by Anders Behring Breivik in Oslo and on the island of Utøya. The sys- tematic killing of the young people on the island and the efforts to elaborate the trauma in a public, democratic process are told from the perspective of an ado- lescent who survives the attack with severe injuries. The film offers a precise por- trait of the physical and emotional impact of terrorism at the individual, familial and social levels. Furthermore, it can be read as a plea for the liberating power of public discourse and democratic procedures in overcoming violent annihilation. Fig. 4: Film still Adaatou Zouli (The Day I Lost my Shadow, Soudade Kaadan, SY/LB/FR/QA 2018), https://www.labiennale.org/it/cinema/2018/selezione-ufficiale/orizzonti/yom-adaatou-zouli-il- giorno-che-ho-perso-la-mia-ombra [accessed 30.12.2018]. 150 | Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1