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The Hunt / Jagten
Someone explain why this wasn’t released in the US and Amour was
The Hunt / Jagten
trailer (contains spoilers)
There’s a certain uneasiness about grown men taking jobs that involve taking care of young children. And rightly so. There are countless stories about abuse on the news every year. Mostly about men. But does this mean we should just ban them from these professions? What about the majority who actually mean well?
Casting is a delicate thing. A brilliant script can become average with the wrong cast, or worse. But with some actors the opposite happens. A movie that would've been forgotten is put on everyone’s radar because of the lead. As is the case with The Hunt (original title: Jagten).
Mads Mikkelsen doesn’t shy away from deep and dark roles. In the Hunt he plays a man working as a kindergarten teacher in a small town in Denmark. One of his male friends has problems with his wife and sometimes he walks their daughter to the school where he teaches. Because her parents have forgotten about her. They quickly become friends. But when some things happen I won’t spoil for you, he is accused of sexual abuse. And this turns his world upside down in a split second.
Now this story may sound familiar. Honestly, it feels like we’ve seen it before. But the subject was never executed so brilliantly as in The Hunt. The story is very subtle and never even comes close to soap territory. Both sides, the accused and the accusers, are played and written so believable and convincingly, you can understand their positions. On the other side there’s the hysteria of the people in town. The hearsay everyone has experienced in their life. And the “where’s smoke there’s fire" card is played flawlessly in this film. (
play clip: “we need to talk”)
Somehow someone somewhere decided to back Amour and it became the foreign Oscar darling of 2012. Along the way, The Hunt got lost and forgotten. It had a decent run in Europe, but never reached American shores. Maybe because that someone thinks Americans won't like a subtle take on the story like this. But I'm 100% certain there’s an audience for this in the US as well. And The Hunt deserves one. 
The Hunt / Jagten hasn’t been picked up for distribution yet (US). + more dates
filmOA | score
80%
worth the popcorn
