“I lost my aunt on Utøya Island, so this issue has always been close to my heart,” said
Theodor Slaaen Borge, in his third year of media studies at Fyrstikkalleen Upper Secondary School. Theodor won the Fritt Ord Competition for Upper Secondary Schools with his project ‘A day that never ends’.

An empty rostrum and steep terrain
Theodor’s aunt was 18 years old when she was killed in a terrorist attack on Utøya Island on 22 July 2011.

“The story is ingrained in our family. I was very young when it happened, but my family has been forever marked by it, of course. We have been very open about it, and we talk about it a lot,” he said.

The project began with a school assignment about mental health. Theodor spent a December day on Utøya to gather impressions, choosing to present them in black and white.

“Colours felt wrong,” he observed.

The jury’s assessment of the entry stated "the images and the short accompanying captions present to us, in a taciturn manner, a powerful story about what can happen when our perception of reality is derived from forces that are willing to create their own truths. The photographer’s simple images and observations, e.g. an “empty rostrum” and “steep terrain”, convey the silence and pain that ensued after 69 people were killed.

The Vietnam War as a mirror
Vy An Doan won second prize for her essay ‘Between the Lines’ about her own Vietnamese family’s history and the distinction between fact and fiction during the Vietnam War. The text was inspired by a trip to Vietnam with her family.
“I was filled with impressions, and I finally got to write them down," she commented.

bq."When you read about the Vietnam War in history books, you often see a very Western bias, for example, ‘us’ versus ‘them’ and ‘good’ versus ‘evil’.

However, when I was actually there myself, it struck me that the people who live there are people just like me. Even though we are a divided country because of our history, we are the same people in a way," she continued.

She also noted that few Vietnamese people in Norway participate in public debates.

“Perhaps we are a bit closed off. When you arrive in a new country, it is natural to focus on creating a new life and learning a new language. Few of the refugees who came from Vietnam got involved in politics. That’s one reason why it has been wonderful to be able to tell their story.”

The jury commented that the essay is a "personal and professional entry that shows how a war continues to affect the successive generations ", and that “the truth can depend on who writes the story. In their home country of Vietnam, parents were called traitors, in the West, they were called puppets. The essay successfully draws parallels to the wars taking place today.”

Stealing people’s faces for disinformation
Third prize went to the film ‘Deepfake’, made by Alexander Røed Tjøsvoll, Helleik Gram Kleivan and Gunnar Máni Thorgeirsson from Bergeland Upper Secondary School in Stavanger. The film’s protagonist is named William. William is hooked on exercise and healthy eating. He downloads an app called ‘Falk’, but fails to realise that his consent to install the app also allowed it to “steal your face”. Suddenly, William’s face was posted online, where he appeared to be an active neo-Nazi who acts in propaganda films.

“We wanted to make a film about something relevant and chose to address deep fakes, AI technology, pressure to have a perfect body, and disinformation. From there, we set about creating a character,” according to the three creators.

Gunnar played the main character.
“It was fun, but demanding. Some scenes, especially the one on the train, took ages. I basically had to sit on a train and have anxiety and panic attacks for four hours,” he chuckles.

The jury remarked that the entry demonstrates “how easily algorithms can lead us into an uncontrolled downward spiral, addressing the often underestimated body shaming that boys also face”, and that it offers “good cinematics, is well directed and edited, and features humour at the same time as it is dead serious”.

Highlights of the award ceremony

Watch the film ‘Deepfake’ here.

Source criticism essential for society
Kjetil Braut Simonsen, an historian and researcher at the Jewish Museum in Oslo and a member of this year’s jury, paid tribute to the three prize laureates. This year’s theme was ‘Source criticism – Fake or Fact’. He drew lines between the disinformation seen today and historical examples, praising the laureates’ ability to exemplify the importance of source criticism in a changing context.

The jury received many entries about how social media and artificial intelligence can distort and manipulate reality.

bq.“Many people have realised that there is not always a clear answer to the question of what is true or not true.

“Reality can be interpreted in a variety of ways, based on different experiences, backgrounds and viewpoints," said the researcher.

“This year’s winners express this in a distinctive manner, each with their own impressive contributions.”