Y ou’ll never understand.” That’s the opening line in Utøya – July 22, director Erik Poppe’s new film recreating the massacre of teenagers at a Norwegian island summer camp by far-right gunman Anders Breivik. It’s spoken straight to camera by Kaja, the film’s 18-year-old protagonist: ostensibly, she is talking on the phone to her mum, in an idle conversation before the terror begins. But it’s also, very obviously, an acknowledgement of the challenge Poppe has set himself: to try and make his audience experience, as intimately as possible, a world-wrenching event of incomprehensible horror.

In fact, by grim fortune, Utøya – July 22 is one of two films released this month about the killings on that summer afternoon in 2011, when Breivik arrived on the island, shortly after setting off a bomb beside Oslo’s government buildings, and opened fire, killing 69 people and seriously injuring another 110 over the course of 72 minutes. He had targeted the camp run by a left-wing youth group as part of his professed war on the country’s multiculturalism.

Norwegian director Poppe’s homegrown production focuses solely, in real time, on the massacre itself, taking us through it from Kaya’s perspective in one excruciating, shaky-cam take. Meanwhile its rival (if that is the word), simply entitled July 22 and launching on Netflix this week, is a more substantial look at the massacre and its aftermath by director Paul Greengrass, the Bourne films director alternatively known as a master of the tragic docudrama, from 2002’s Bloody Sunday to his 2006 work about one of the 9/11 plane hijackings, United 93.

With United 93, five years marked the gap between catastrophe and its cinematic representation; in the case of the Breivik films, it’s seven. Yet the same question has been asked again: is it, simply, too soon? On top of that, there is nothing quite so viscerally upsetting as the mass shooting of children, and no subject for a film is likely to face more moral scrutiny. When Utøya – July 22 premiered at the Berlin film festival in February, it received a lot of positive notices, but there were also those who deemed it crass and exploitative.

Both Poppe and Greengrass seem aware of the ethical pitfalls, implicitly building their justifications into their versions of events. Poppe’s film omits Breivik almost entirely, only showing him in brief long shot. This, the director makes clear, is a film firmly about the victims and what they had to endure (the individual characters are fictionalised, though their experiences are based on survivors’ testimonies).

By contrast, Greengrass places Breivik front and centre (he’s played with a blank, vulpine chill by Anders Danielsen Lie) but the film only spends the first 30 minutes on the massacre itself. For the subsequent two hours, it switches between the arduous rehabilitation of one of the real-life survivors, Viljar Hanssen, a 17-year-old from the Arctic island of Svalbard, and Breivik’s trial, in which the battle of ideas between his toxic ideology and his victims’ vision of a tolerant, multicultural Norway plays out. This, Greengrass makes clear, is less about tragedy, than recovery.

Nevertheless, there’s no getting around the depressing fact that the massacre itself is the most cinematic aspect of the story. It’s a deeply eerie experience watching the films’ recreations of events on Utøya in quick succession, as I did a couple of weeks ago, and finding yourself engaging in a compare and contrast. Bearing witness to the shootings on screen, Greengrass’s film is the more violent take, though Poppe’s, with its tight focus on one teenager, is the more visceral. Meanwhile, in the build-up to the shootings, Poppe does better at characterising his victims, making them more authentically, discordantly adolescent, where Greengrass presents a harmonious youth utopia.

But in both, a queasiness comes from the way they convert real-life trauma into pulse-racing suspense. Perhaps that’s compounded by the fact the massacre felt like it was plucked straight from a horror film in the first place: the teenage summer camp is, after all, one of the genre’s most targeted locales. Watching Utøya – July 22’s long-haired heroine Kaja scrabble around the forest amid her fallen peers, another jarring, more mainstream, reference came to mind: the young-adult fantasy of The Hunger Games.

Is Poppe’s film, in particular, by focusing solely on the massacre and shooting it in such an experiential manner, exploitative? Maybe. Or maybe it’s us, the audience, that are the problem, and our whole dubious appetite for bloodshed on screen. That is, we can only understand violence through the prism of the films we watch for fictional thrills: the difference here is that the bloodshed brings no catharsis.

Best films on Netflix Show all 28 1 /28 Best films on Netflix Best films on Netflix Netflix's recommendation algorithm is pretty sophisticated these days, to the point where it can probably determine not only what you want to watch next, but what you'll eat for breakfast 13 years on Wednesday and the thread count of your sheets. And yet, it still has a tendency to spit out some peculiar recommendations. Double features like The Boss Baby: Back in Business and Full Metal Jacket, presumably the result of a four-year-old relative having briefly taken charge of your account. Sometimes you just can't beat a good old-fashioned human recommendation. So here's a list of exclusively great films, from renowned and revered award winners to lesser-known gems. Rex Best films on Netflix Best films on Netflix The Wolf of Wall Street (2013. Dir. Martin Scorsese, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey) It's strange that this title doesn't often rank high in "best Scorsese movies" lists, given that it is so accomplished at every level of production. Compelling, shocking and very, very funny, it tells the story of Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio), a ruthless stockbroker whose fraudulence and market manipulation afforded him an incredibly opulent and debauched lifestyle - until the feds closed in. Cast to perfection, this is the film that cemented Jonah Hill as more than just a stoner comedy actor (so desperate was he to achieve his dream of appearing in a Scorsese film that he offered to perform his key role in Wall Street for free). Paramount Pictures Best films on Netflix Crazy Stupid Love (2011. Dir. Glenna Ficarra and John Requa, stars Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone) Write off this movie as a throwaway romcom because of its sappy title at your peril. Centring on a divorcee (Carell) being reeducated on single life by a suave younger man (Gosling), Crazy, Stupid, Love starts out a light watch that packs a lot of laughs. It's working away on your soul, though, and by the end this surprisingly profound comic drama will have you in tears. Warner Bros. Best films on Netflix Seven (1995. Dir. David Fincher, stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey) Criminally overlooked at the Oscars (it only received one nomination - Best Film Editing) Se7en became the blueprint for the neo-noir crime thriller. Two detectives (Pitt and Freeman) stalk a serial killer whose murders are inspired by the seven deadly sins. The film moves through them with great pace and suspense, before concluding with an unforgettably macabre twist. New Line Cinema Best films on Netflix Scarface (1983. Dir. Brian De Palma, stars Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer) Come for the mafia story, stay for the 1980s nostalgia. De Palma brought style and emotion to this fairly simple story of a Cuban refugee turned drug kingpin, a rambunctious mix of artful relationship drama and gory, pulp action movie. It's always a pleasure to soak up the pastel neon of 1980s Miami, the iconic new wave soundtrack, and the fearsome, immersive lead performance from Al Pacino. That I nearly wrote "stars Tony Montana" above says it all. Universal Pictures Best films on Netflix Girl, Interrupted (1999. Dir. James Mangold, stars Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Brittany Murphy, Elisabeth Moss) 1999 was a vintage year for cinema and this drama was ahead of its time, both in its brutally honest exploration of mental health and its overwhelmingly female cast. Kaysen (Ryder) is on the surface of it one of the less severe cases at Claymoore psychiatric hospital, but, as she is led astray by the other rebellious patients (Jolie et al), her manipulative personality has an insidious effect on them all. Columbia Pictures Best films on Netflix Whiplash (2014. Dir. Damien Chazelle, stars Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons) This is one of the very best movies about music, and it had a budget of $3 million. You don't have to be particularly into jazz nor drumming to appreciate this meditation on creative discipline. It's a fireworks display of a film which overloads the senses and will have you so close to the edge of your seat as to risk back injury. Sony Pictures Best films on Netflix The Social Network (2010. Dir. David Fincher, stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Rooney Mara, Justin Timberlake) As with The Big Short, this biopic was hard to get excited about when it was first announced – the story of Facebook's rise from dorm room prank to world-changing social network didn't appear to be particularly dramatic on the surface of it. Thanks to a razor sharp script from Aaron Sorkin, Eisenberg's performance as Facebook founder and neurotic genius Mark Zuckerberg, and Nine Inch Nails's Trent Reznor's driving score, it is however an absolute pleasure to spend 120 minutes with. In light of recent events surrounding Facebook, I only wish we were going to get a Social Network 2. Columbia Pictures Best films on Netflix La La Land (2016. Dir. Damien Chazelle, stars Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone) If you take my Whiplash recommendation and have a good time with Chazelle's breakthrough feature, you'll be pleased to hear his follow-up is also on Netflix. La La Land isn't quite as easy to love but stunningly executed. It's a love letter to classic Hollywood unfolding through the lives of a struggling musician and actor (Gosling and Stone). Summit Entertainment Best films on Netflix Atonement (2007. Dir. Joe Wright, stars Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Benedict Cumberbatch) This beautifully-acted adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel centres on precocious 13-year-old writer Briony Tallis (Ronan) and the lives she irreversibly changes when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he didn't commit. The cinematography is breathtaking; you'll want to hang stills from the film on your wall. Universal Pictures Best films on Netflix Good Will Hunting (1997. Dir. Gus Van Sant, stars Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver) Damon and Affleck penned one of the all-time great scripts here, telling the story of a kid from the wrong side of the tracks in Boston (Damon) who happens to also be a self-taught maths genius. Robin Williams gives an unforgettably tender performance as his therapist, as the film probes deep philosophical questions and examines the worth of knowledge. Miramax Best films on Netflix Children of Men The year is 2027, and two decades of human infertility have left society in ruins. This is no mild dystopia – there's only one functioning government left in the world. Clive Owen plays civil servant who (mild to medium spoiler alert) who discovers a refugee is pregnant and must get her to safety amid chaos and rioting. Engrossing from start to finish, the thriller is notable for its daring single-shot sequences, which saw long strings of action captured in one take thanks to some nifty camerawork. Alamy Best films on Netflix Rain Man This comedy road movie swept the board at the 1988 Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Dustin Hoffman. His chemistry with Cruise is fabulous to watch. Cruise's hustler character finds his inheritance has been given to an autistic savant brother (Hoffman) he knew nothing about. He initially tries to exploit Raymond's gift for numbers, but ends up warming to him and the pair establish an unusual and touching sibling relationship. Rain Man also features on our list of movie mistakes that only made their scenes better. Best films on Netflix Fantastic Mr Fox (2009. Dir. Wes Anderson, stars George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray) Almost a decade before Isle of Dogs came Anderson's first foray into stop-motion animation, an adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1970 children's novel, Fantastic Mr Fox. As quirky and detail-orientated as you would expect for the auteur, this is a film made with a lot of love that will please viewers of all generations. 20th Century Fox Best films on Netflix Best films on Netflix Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016. Dir. Aktiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, stars Andy Bamberg, Schaffer, Taccone, Joan Cusack, Maya Rudolph) The Lonely Island gang give the modern pop industry a much needed ribbing in this mockumentary, which centres on a Justin Bieber-esque popstar known as Connor4Real (Samberg) as he ditches his boyband mates and embarks on a solo career. Hugely funny, it skewers everything from stadium show gimmicks to celebrities' use of social media. Keep your eyes people for an amazing TMZ parody. Universal Pictures Best films on Netflix 20th Century Women (2016. Dir. Mike Mills, stars Annette Benning, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig) Given the male egos on the geopolitical stage at the minute, there's something quite timely about this story of a boy being raised by women amid a spirit of freedom prevalent in Santa Barbara in 1979. Annette Benning shows why she is one of Hollywood's greats, in an increasingly rare lead role. A24 Best films on Netflix Nightcrawler (2014. Dir. Dan Gilroy, stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed) Realising that his sensitive demeanour is actually weirdly creepy was the best thing Gyllenhaal could do for his career. With Nightcrawler, he quit playing heroic soldiers and explorers and took on a sinister video journalist obsessed with covering the most grim and violent crime scenes he can scramble to. An underrated thriller with a lot to say about American news consumption. Open Road Films Best films on Netflix Loving Vincent (2017. Dir. Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, stars Saoirse Ronan, Helen McCrory, Aidan Turner) Each of this film's 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, created painstakingly by a team of artists employing the same techniques as Vincent van Gogh. If that fact doesn't get you to at least stick this film on and give it a chance to draw you in, I don't know what will. Altitude Best films on Netflix Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017. Dir. Miloš Forman, stars Jim Carrey) A film about Jim Carrey's portrayal of Andy Kaufman in 1999 film Man on the Moon might sound niche, but this documentary transcends its behind-the-scenes premise. Carrey stayed in character for the entire production of the biopic, infuriating and inspiring his co-stars. Here we find out why, and get to spend some time in Carrey's mind, which is not always a very happy place to be. A surprisingly moving watch. Netflix Best films on Netflix The Invitation (2015. Dir Karyn Kusama, stars Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard) There's neither witchcraft nor unexplained supernatural goings on in this horror, which takes place entirely at an incredibly awkward dinner party. The hosts will just not stop being creepy. Protagonist Will seems to be the only guest convinced something is not quite right, but is it all in his head? Drafthouse Best films on Netflix Nymphomaniac volumes I & II (2013. Dir. Lars von Trier, stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe) The third part of Lars von Trier's so-called "Depression Trilogy" (following Antichrist and Melancholia), Nymphomaniac is probably the experimental director's most accessible film. Separated into two parts, it chronicles a young woman's (Stacy Martin and later Gainsbourg) sexual history, and the often dangerous impact it has on her life. Les Films du Losange Best films on Netflix Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011. Dir. David Gelb, stars Jiro Ono) Certainly the best film ever made about sushi and possibly the best film ever made about food, Jiro Dreams of Sushi centres on 85-year-old Jiro Ono, the owner of a Michelin three-star restaurant located in a Tokyo subway station. Jiro is one of the highest-regarded chefs in the world, but is any level of acclaim good enough for this uber-perfectionist? Magnolia Pictures Best films on Netflix Layer Cake (2004. Dir. Matthew Vaughn, stars Daniel Craig, Tom Hardy, Ben Whishaw, Sally Hawkins) Ever wondered how Daniel Craig ended up playing James Bond? Look no further than this gritty mob drama, in which he plays a suave and solemn cocaine supplier, drawn deeper than he would like into London's criminal underbelly. Sony Pictures Best films on Netflix God's Own Country (2017. Dir. Francis Lee, stars Josh O'Connor, Alec Secăreanu) "Same-sex lovers struggle to just be themselves in a small town where being gay is frowned upon" may be a story we've seen many, many times on the big screen now, but this British drama just does it so beautifully, and with a budget of only £1 million. Johnny (O'Connor) is a bored and bitter young farmer in Yorkshire, but his life is turned upside down when Romanian migrant worker Gheorge (Secăreanu) arrives and soothes his weary soul. Orion Pictures Best films on Netflix Good Time (2017. 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Utøya – July 22, is a compelling piece of filmmaking for its duration, but in the end you wonder what purpose it serves. Poppe has said that he wants to make sure the atrocities are not forgotten, and I don’t doubt his intentions, but is suffering in itself a worthwhile subject?

Greengrass’s film, in focusing on the ideology that caused the shootings, is actually the greater act of remembrance for the victims. It’s more Hollywood undoubtedly, and, inevitably perhaps, weighed down by reverence. But in choosing to foreground Breivik, and to stare his evil in the face, it actually makes the bolder choice.

There will be those who disagree. Just as the Norwegian justice system did, Greengrass once again allows Breivik to express his neo-Nazi views on screen in the courtroom scenes. To which you might say that the director is exactly playing into his hands, giving him yet more of the airtime he craved.

Yet the inclusion of his hate-preaching is justified by the film’s most understatedly chilling moment: when Breivik’s lawyer Geir Lipestad visits his client’s mother. She is ashamed of her son and refuses to testify on his behalf. But nevertheless, as Lipestad is leaving, she casually endorses him. “He’s kind of right though, isn’t he?” she says to the nonplussed attorney. “The way the country’s going... it’s not like it used to be.” To cast Breivik as an invisible bogeyman, as Poppe’s Utøya – July 22 does, is to deny that he is a product of his time and place: the unacceptable consequence of the accepted xenophobia permeating through the heart of Western society.

After all, for all that Greengrass’s film celebrates the noble defiance of liberalism in the face of Breivik’s hate, take a look at Norway today and the picture is bleak. The last few years have seen the rise of the populist right-wing Progress Party. Now in coalition government, the party was founded on anti-immigrant, anti-Islam sentiment, and Breivik was actively involved in it for seven years until 2006. Meanwhile, across Europe, populist and far-right movements continue to gain momentum. Too soon? One of these films, at least, can't come soon enough.