Set in a small, close-knit community, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt (Jagten) inhabits the realm of newspaper headlines and parents’ worst nightmares. When a kindergarten teacher – mild-mannered divorcee and father Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen, A Royal Affair) – is accused of inappropriate conduct towards one of his charges (debutant Annika Wedderkopp), townsfolk are expectedly distraught as they struggle to comprehend how such an atrocity occurred.
Justice is pursued, with the school’s supervisor (Susse Wold, TV’s Unit 1) leading the charge. Outside of official channels, the accuser’s father (Thomas Bo Larsen, The Last Joint Venture) and his hunting buddies also contemplate the purported actions of their former friend. Alas, with emotions heightened, one line of enquiry is overlooked: whether Lucas actually committed the crime that sparked the allegations.
In his eighth feature, writer/director Vinterberg returns to a familiar topic, having previously explored sexual abuse 14 years earlier in his celebrated Festen. The Hunt – the second collaboration between Vinterberg and his Submarino co-scribe Tobias Lindholm – also signals a return to the filmmaker’s probing of social structures under pressure, here extending beyond a single family unit to consider the reactions of and repercussions throughout an insular Danish township.
Within such a critique, it is the fluidity of truth that resonates from the taut, tense narrative. As camaraderie crumbles with the utterance of a false statement – and accepted conventions along with it – the film methodically charts the ease with which rumour becomes record, and the chilling consequences thereof. The result is a harrowing cautionary tale, totally absorbing but infuriating and upsetting in turn. Though the storyline caters to the customary plot points, familiarity ensures the freedom required to chronicle the complex underlying psychology.
As assured as Vinterberg’s methods are – and those of cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen (My Good Enemy) and editors Janus Billeskov Jansen and Anne Østerud (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) – The Hunt is anchored by the exceptional Mikkelsen. His best actor nod at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival is more than justified; here, his prowess beyond the cold roles he has become known for is immediately proven. Though the feature’s style is influential, few other performers could have perfected the sympathy and warmth essential to such a difficult, persecuted role. Mirroring the surrounding film, Mikkelsen stuns with his fragility and intensity; his efforts, like the heartbreak and horror they evoke, will leave viewers lost for words.
Rating: 4 ½ stars out of 5
The Hunt (Jagten)
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Denmark, 2012, 115 min
Rated: MA
Screening as part of Perth Festival’s Lotterywest film program
25 November – 14 April
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