Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 55 mins
Director. Thomas Vinterberg
Cast. Lasse Fogelstrøm, Thomas Bo Larsen, Mads Mikkelsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Susse Wold.
Some film directors who score success with an early feature often struggle thereafter. The likes of Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) and Neill Blomkamp (District 9) immediately spring to mind. Danish director, Thomas Vinterberg may have suffered a similar fate after he followed his critically acclaimed debut feature film, Festen (The Celebration) with subsequent lukewarm international projects, It's All About Love and Dear Wendy.
But, not many film directors spawn an entire artistic movement with their debut feature. Thomas Vinterberg and fellow Danish director, Lars von Trier founded the avant-garde filmmaking movement, Dogme 95 in the mid-1990s, and Festen (The Celebration) is widely acknowledged as the first film in the Dogme 95 catalogue. The movement, so loved by the arthouse audience, was an attempt to reclaim artistic power from the studio. Dogme 95 has a distinct style and a defined set of rules to create films based on traditional values of theme, plot and performance, and exclude the use of elaborate special effects or technology.
In The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg returns to difficult themes explored in his debut feature, specifically the breakdown of interpersonal relationships under the pressure of accusations of sexual abuse.
The main character, Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is a kindergarten teacher, who is falsely accused of child abuse. Lucas is portrayed as innocent from the outset - we are never in doubt that the victim here is the adult, not the child. In doing so, The Hunt becomes one of the most unsettling films I've seen in a long time, aligning the audience so completely with the main protagonist in this horrific, unjust nightmare. We share his hurt, his incredulity and his incomprehension. We endure, as events escalate and Lucas becomes ostracised from the community and alienated from his friends. Lucas is unable to prove his innocence, even to those he's known all his life, and we, like Lucas, are impotent to affect the situation.
Mads Mikkelsen's performance is powerful, nuanced and quietly affecting. His character is a good man stunned into passivity. His inertia believable, as he discovers innocence and decency are no defence against the baying mob. Lucas retains a sense of defiance and no matter how bleak the situation appears, does he fall prey to self-pity. Mikkelsen rightly was rewarded with the Best Actor Award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival for this tour de force performance.
The small-town herd mentality is frightening. The Hunt would suggest that there are still crimes for which the accused is considered guilty until proven innocent. The incendiary allegations are anchored by another remarkable performance, this time by seven-year-old Annika Wedderkopp as Klara, the little girl whose imagination sparks it all. Klara is a child portrayed as we rarely see children portrayed - innocent and cunning, sweet and cruel and capable of conscious acts of duplicity.
Beautifully shot, lean and intense. For much of The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg uses a handheld camera and natural light in keeping with the principles of the Dogme 95 movement. The film starkly highlights how easily civilised, rational inhabitants of the small town lose their moral bearings. With The Hunt, Vinterberg has taken very dark material and made the offering accessible with a disarming style. The film's dramatic conclusion can either be viewed as open or definitive. Is Lucas able to return to the herd or are some things broken beyond fixing? Either way, The Hunt is beautifully performed in an uncompromising style.
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