The Hunt (2012) Denmark
"One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them."- Aldous Huxley
The Hunt is a severe wrapping of a man's concealing of his vulnerability. Thomas Vinterberg's expose of how and what does it mean to a person pushed around by the fears to go through as a middle-aged man, having dragged to realize the intended truth with having to prove it or shout at it. So is the vicious circle of this complex story, set in a small Danish village around Christmas, and hunt the man who becomes the target of mass hysteria after being accused wrongly of sexually abusing a child in the kindergarten school.
Thomas Vinterberg is known for his informal innovations of the Dogme style in the la1990s, who would define Danish cinema for the next two decades and more. His contribution to the Scandinavian indie-films, is unstinted and penetrative, having the vibrant fan-following among millennials and new age film-makers.
The Director had a story proposal from the child psychologist who visited him after his Festen (1998). Revisiting the Doctor years later was shocked by the project because he had shelved the same material without reading at that time. He was amazed by the narrative, as it shed a different light on the difficult subject of abuse though documents were raving about children and their fantasies. He turned again to collaborate with the talented Tobias Lindholm, who had co-written with him the multiple award-winning Submarino. The result of this duo is an extraordinary story and an exquisite screenplay rooted at every step of breath-taking reality, which spins the charge of pedophilia against an allegation based on an impulsive lie, deeply etched making it piercing, psychological crime thriller.
Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), separated from his wife, and making up on his own after the fierce legal battle with his ex-wife for the custody of his son and having taken up the job in the pre-school as a teacher in the hamlet of the close-knit Danish community where he grew up and had moved-in along with his teenage son Marcus (Lasse Fogelstr?m). Lucas meets Nadja (Alexandra Rapaport), an eastern European immigrant who teaches in the same school and eventually becomes his girlfriend.
Lucas tries to overcome his shortcomings of temporary job, despite economic measures, and things seem to be genial after his dangerous encounter with Nadja, a well-educated woman. Life appears to refresh a start again. Klara, a five-year-old girl, also a daughter of Lucas's good friend Theo, finds an innocent crush on Lucas. He lets her walk with his dog Fanny, and the kid develops an innocent crush on Lucas. The child away from school finds her parents in a constant domestic argument. One day the little girl, Klara confound Luca's refusal of a gift and finds herself inadvertently adamant of her unwavering determination of tit-for-tat, if not willing to consider with her teacher.
Self-imagining her own memory of an exposed pornographic picture by her older teenage brother and his friend exhibited her, Klara remarks about Lucas describing inconceivable adult stuff, that leads to Grethe, the school director. Grethe brings in a psychologist who pose leading questions with Klara. The little girl is abstruse with the unclear response about Lucas.
Grethe still denotes that the child wouldn't lie about such a serious matter and raise the issue with the parents in the school, and also propping a need for protection for Lucas's son. As a consequence, destroy Luca's bonafide and the whole town doubt Klara's story as real. Lucas is fired, and the news widely gets sufficient attention to a denial of all restraint but not of reason. The community soon after shuns, tag him as a pedophile and his arrest on sexual assault. It becomes dangerous for a man to come into the acquisition, and his character now floats based on the words of every damn person in town.
Lucas's relationship with Nadja is ruined, letting him down in belief of unanimous sting. So does his friendship with Theo is destroyed. His only saving grace is Bruun, a wealthy friend who still believes in his innocence. Lucas is released without a charge and comes back home celebrating with his son Marcus and Bruun.
The consummate of hate continues against Lucas. The community effects of conformity and the motives behind the words are wafer-thin and buried in the volcano of deceit, the very notion of hangdog and shame. The man marked by decadence, persecutory witch hunt into the air of elusive white stream of irrationality. There appear no possibilities of eliminating persistent errors. Having to get out of a convenience store and butcher provokes a fight with him. Lucas retaliates his voice in defense. His dog is shot dead. Lucas, unbearable in the situation, sends his son Marcus to live with his mother.
The days pass, eventually it's a Christmas eve. The whole community is brazen out against Lucas as the bloodlust crowd overflown- The mask of insanity exposes berserk of savagery that's neither knew nor cared what its target was. So it was when running over without warning as Lucas reaches his breaking point and beats up Theo in front of everyone during church service, and urging the town to leave him alone. The same night- Klara mistaking her father for Lucas, on her ground, apologizes that nothing wrong is done, before her sleep. Realizing Lucas is innocent, Theo later visits him with food and alcohol as a peace offering. The climax is eventually an incantation of the faith, bestowed upon the guardian angel.
We witness the final scene, which is one year after the submission of events. Lucas, his ex-wife, and the entire community are present to commemorate Marcus as a full member of the hunting society, and thus the party begins. There's a gunshot heard, and Lucas blinded in the fleeting sunset follows into the woods.
Full credit to Mads Mikkelsen as Lucas. One of the finest actors in the trade today. You can expect him to play varied roles, whether as a sensitive man, silent assassin, maniac baddy, druggy, or a sarcastic lover, and his brilliant screen presence arguably notch the burst of the warmth of forbidden sweet.
Tobias Lindholm and Thomas Vinterberg's visual display is the array of unsurpassed beauty. The dark face of startling crime lay the canvas back to the audience and what we see of detached lenses that the relationship plays around the person and the people in the neighbourhood knowing each other by name. The experience allows us to walk in Lucas's shoes and to mortify the account that can come from small-town gossip or a child's lies in this case, and one could easily make-believe. The reminiscence is unclouded and the Director's way of waving the flag, and possibly a reflection of the new norm.
So with the fiery kiss to the woods- The Hunt makes you realize that with an infinite amount of stories. The ambivalence of the smog could bring the scintillating colours in those lesser-known places behind every overlaid picture of the evening dazzle and refreshing breeze, and there is a grotesque.
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Screenplay by Tobias Lindholm and Thomas Vinterberg. Music by Nikolaj Egelund. Produced by Morten Kaufmann; Sisse Graum J?rgensen & Thomas Vinterberg. Edited by Anne ?sterud & Janus Billeskov Jansen. Cinematography by Charlotte Bruus Christensen.