Danish director Thomas Vinterberg's 2012 production, The Hunt, explores the theme on trust. Trust among children to adults, trusts among friends, family, co-workers and the community are put onto a test when an unexpected lie ruins the life of kindergarten teacher, Lucas. With the uprising Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen as Lucas, The Hunt is not a film that can be easily digested over popcorn and drinks.
Set in a small town in Denmark, Lucas was dealing with the custody of his son, Marcus. At the same time, he gets along with his group of close friends, where they hunt, swim in the cold lake and drinks together. When Klara, the daughter of Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen), a best friend of Lucas, gets a mistaken idea over the gestures from Lucas, she tells a lie that soon will not only spreads unwanted panic among the community, but also destroys the life of Lucas. Lucas was accused of making an indecent exposure towards Klara, where panic among the parents spreads like wild fire. Lucas becomes the public enemy overnight, and what follows is how he copes and gains back his innocence.
Vinterberg is using The Hunt as a mirror reflection on how the current society deals with child's sexual abuse. While it is nothing new that sexual abuse are usually occurred among the closest people the victim knows, The Hunt explores on how trust are being misused and exploited at the same time. To Gretha, the kindergarten principal, she believes in hearing what she wants to hear rather than the truth. This is followed by Ole, a local counselor, who are indirectly pressuring Klara in telling another lie (or more rather, what the adults wants to hear) on how she was violated by Lucas. In no time, the community sees Lucas as a sexual predator towards young children after attending their monthly parent's gathering, where the news of Lucas violating Klara was announced. Vinterberg is showcasing the audience how the breakdown of trust can begin with a lie, and what people prefer to hear. Trust is also seen as something that is very fragile, where all it takes is some negative comments to break the trust that has been build among the community for years.
Running at 115 minutes, some audience will find it uneasy to sit through The Hunt. The first half of the film are easy to follow, but soon audience are lost in the labyrinth of trust and misconception, just like how the community are lost in logic and what they choose to believe in. Death threats and ostracizing are issues that plague Lucas, and annoy the audience sometimes. Much areas are left unexplained in the second half of the film. Audience are either given a room to think and reflect, or to left them high and dry. Mikkelsen, who won the Best Actor in Cannes Film Festival 2012, could have been given more time to defend himself and clear his innocence, rather than suffering in silence. No doubt his fine acting skills gave him the credit to win the honor of Best Actor, but at times, it is too much to bear for the audience.
Overall, The Hunt is not your usual feel good European independent production. It gives you room to think and examine how fragile trust can be. At the same time, it also tells us how a innocent lie can break a person. While it leaves the audience to think how trusts can be gain, sometimes, audience just wish to see how the empty gaps can be filled up by the director.
Set in a small town in Denmark, Lucas was dealing with the custody of his son, Marcus. At the same time, he gets along with his group of close friends, where they hunt, swim in the cold lake and drinks together. When Klara, the daughter of Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen), a best friend of Lucas, gets a mistaken idea over the gestures from Lucas, she tells a lie that soon will not only spreads unwanted panic among the community, but also destroys the life of Lucas. Lucas was accused of making an indecent exposure towards Klara, where panic among the parents spreads like wild fire. Lucas becomes the public enemy overnight, and what follows is how he copes and gains back his innocence.
Vinterberg is using The Hunt as a mirror reflection on how the current society deals with child's sexual abuse. While it is nothing new that sexual abuse are usually occurred among the closest people the victim knows, The Hunt explores on how trust are being misused and exploited at the same time. To Gretha, the kindergarten principal, she believes in hearing what she wants to hear rather than the truth. This is followed by Ole, a local counselor, who are indirectly pressuring Klara in telling another lie (or more rather, what the adults wants to hear) on how she was violated by Lucas. In no time, the community sees Lucas as a sexual predator towards young children after attending their monthly parent's gathering, where the news of Lucas violating Klara was announced. Vinterberg is showcasing the audience how the breakdown of trust can begin with a lie, and what people prefer to hear. Trust is also seen as something that is very fragile, where all it takes is some negative comments to break the trust that has been build among the community for years.
Running at 115 minutes, some audience will find it uneasy to sit through The Hunt. The first half of the film are easy to follow, but soon audience are lost in the labyrinth of trust and misconception, just like how the community are lost in logic and what they choose to believe in. Death threats and ostracizing are issues that plague Lucas, and annoy the audience sometimes. Much areas are left unexplained in the second half of the film. Audience are either given a room to think and reflect, or to left them high and dry. Mikkelsen, who won the Best Actor in Cannes Film Festival 2012, could have been given more time to defend himself and clear his innocence, rather than suffering in silence. No doubt his fine acting skills gave him the credit to win the honor of Best Actor, but at times, it is too much to bear for the audience.
Overall, The Hunt is not your usual feel good European independent production. It gives you room to think and examine how fragile trust can be. At the same time, it also tells us how a innocent lie can break a person. While it leaves the audience to think how trusts can be gain, sometimes, audience just wish to see how the empty gaps can be filled up by the director.