Jagten (The Hunt)
2012
****
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Alexandra Rapaport, Thomas Bo Larsen, Susse Wold, Lars Ranthe, Anne Louise Hassing, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrøm
Lucas is a divorced kindergarten teacher with strong ties to his community. When one of his pupils mistakenly alludes that he exposed himself to her, the incident snowballs out of control and Lucas' life turns into a nightmare. Like Andrew Jarecki's brilliant 2003 documentary Capturing the Friedmans, Thomas Vinterberg's terrifically subtle and disconcerting thriller/drama shows how even a possibility of child abuse can send an entire community into mass hysteria and destroy an individual's life in the process. Nevertheless, the script by Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm does not feature bad guys, only a group of over-sensitive, cynical, reactionary and politically correct grown-ups. Mads Mikkelsen gives another stellar performance in the lead.
