The Hunt

The Hunt (Orignal Danish title: Jagten), which was released early this year has been receiving showers of praise from almost everyone who has seen it. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg , one of the founding brothers of the Dogme 95 film movement in Danish Cinema, this film has all that it takes to present a simple yet powerful picture in front of the viewer. Thomas Vinterberg co-wrote it with Tobias Lindholm.

The Hunt follows the story of a man named Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) who works in a kindergarten school. He is divorcee and has been struggling to maintain a stable relationship with his son who stays with his ex-wife.

The story is set in a small town where everyone knows everyone. At the beginning of the film we are introduced to Lucas and his group. Lucas has a best friend in Theo. Theo is married and has a kid daughter, Klara. Along with Klara, Theo also has a teenage son. Lucas is very close to Theo's family. He often walks Klara from her home to kindergarten and back.

All the things go on as usual until Klara sees some pornographic images on her brother's iPad. It doesn't make a proper sense in her innocent mind. What's worse is that she imagines and makes up a story which involves Lucas doing certain acts (sexually abusing, although nothing shown or even mildly suggested visually) with her.

When Lucas returns back the gift she had made for him, it triggers her emotionally and she confides her story to Martha, the head of kindergarten. Certain actions are taken according to the protocol. Slowly the whole town knows about it. And what starts as an innocent lie by a small kid turns out into a mass hysteria of the whole town against Lucas.

Everyone starts to shun Lucas. He is fired, his current girlfriend leaves him. His friends don't want to see him any more, the shop keeper won't allow him in his shop, etc. Lucas' son who believes in his father's innocence, comes for his help. That is the only relief for Lucas. Slowly the resentment of the people turns into voilence and Lucas has to deal with the dreadful mass hysteria against him.
 
The film currently holds a fresh rating of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Thomas Vinterberg and his team deserve to be honored for taking such a subject and showing it in an effective way. Mads Mikkelsen gives some of the best performances we as a movie audience will ever see. The little girl, Annika Wedderkopp is adorable and shocks us with a performance that's way too ahead for someone of her age. Editing, music, cinematography and everything else about the movie is just so good. Overall the film turns out to be winner.