Norway massacre film outrages victims

The trailer for a low-budget film based on the Norway massacre and showing young people screaming and running away from a gunman has sparked outcry from survivors of July's mass killing.

A 70-second movie trailer for a film titled Utoya Island - due for release in 2012 - has appeared on YouTube to widespread criticism.

Sixty-nine people were killed on the island on July 22 when a gunman opened fire during a Labor Party youth camp. The man is also accused of triggering a car bomb in Oslo on the same day, killing eight people.

"It is important to find a way to retell what happened," Utoya Island survivor Adrian Pracon told mediaite.com. "But seeing it [done in] this way is simply disgusting."

The trailer begins with haunting music and interjections of machine gun fire, before actors are seen huddling in groups or screaming and running into the water pursued by a man wearing a "politi" uniform.

"As a filmmaker, I thought I should show the world what happened in Norway," director Vitaliy Versace said. "And what could happen if we stopped selling guns to retarded people."

He dismissed criticism that his project was too soon after the event.

"I'm going to kill you all," says an actor portraying confessed gunman Anders Behring Breivik.

The film, which claims to show "the mind behind the Norway shootings", has received a string of damning comments since its upload to YouTube on September 24.

- AAP