The Hunt (Jagten) (2012)
November 15, 2015 11:41 AM - Subscribe
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
The trailer.
The most popular Danish film on IMDb at the moment. The No. 4 film, The Celebration, is also directed by Thomas Vinterberg.
This is not a film about abuse. Quite the opposite, it's about a tender relationship between a pretty little girl and her nice teacher, and how this relationship is destroyed as a result of a little lie she tells.
posted by growabrain at 1:53 PM on November 15, 2015
posted by growabrain at 1:53 PM on November 15, 2015
I saw this a while back, so it's not really fresh in my head, but like growabrain says, there is no obvious child abuse in the story. The protagonist is subjected to quite a bit of brutality, and there are false confessions of child abuse, though.
I think the filmmaking is strong enough that reading the spoilers in the Wikipedia article wouldn't ruin it, so if you think you'd be OK with it, you could go read the full summary and see if anything in it seems like it'd be triggering.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:23 PM on November 15, 2015
I think the filmmaking is strong enough that reading the spoilers in the Wikipedia article wouldn't ruin it, so if you think you'd be OK with it, you could go read the full summary and see if anything in it seems like it'd be triggering.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:23 PM on November 15, 2015
a little lie she tells
The lie being that he sexually abused her. The movie focuses on the fall-out of that lie -- and the ensuing witch-hunt the community engages in. I mean, I haven't seen the movie yet, but basically the whole plot revolves around (unfounded) accusations of abuse. Do I have that wrong?
posted by fancyoats at 2:27 PM on November 15, 2015
The lie being that he sexually abused her. The movie focuses on the fall-out of that lie -- and the ensuing witch-hunt the community engages in. I mean, I haven't seen the movie yet, but basically the whole plot revolves around (unfounded) accusations of abuse. Do I have that wrong?
posted by fancyoats at 2:27 PM on November 15, 2015
I found this to be a devastating and brilliant movie. It really made me reconsider some of the impulses I have and assumptions I make in my rush to join mobs and place blame. The specifics of the story revolve around an accusation of child abuse, but the movie is clearly thinking in much more universal terms, and seeks to implicate and explore our own thought patterns in a number of situations.
This bit from Mikkelsen is really insightful:
This bit from Mikkelsen is really insightful:
"One of the most beautiful things about this script is that it's hard to point a finger at anyone," Mikkelsen says. "When I see it, and when I read it, I understand my friend, and I understand the woman who works in the kindergarten. I understand the little girl, I understand my friend's wife. So for that reason alone, it's very difficult to put your anger anywhere.posted by naju at 3:39 PM on November 15, 2015 [8 favorites]
"And that is obviously the dilemma of the story," he says. "There are no bad guys. There's just an enormous love that's being turned into enormous fear and eventually into hate. And I think that is the real power and the real story of the film."
Ah, this is just the kick I needed to finally flick this one off my queue.
posted by rhizome at 7:29 PM on November 15, 2015
posted by rhizome at 7:29 PM on November 15, 2015
Ok, now, after having watched it. So many complicated feelings. The scenes with his son. The scenes in the grocery store. The scenes with the one friend who believes in him. The scene burying the dog. The scene in the church. The scene where Theo brings him food. The scene at the end where he carries Klara over the lines. So much.
I mean, we all are supposed to believe kids when they tell they've been abused, right? You are supposed to believe a victim, not assume they are lying. If it had been true, would Lucas have deserved what happened? We want to protect our kids. We want to punish bad people, to hurt the people who have hurt the innocents. But even the "bad people" have worth and humanity.
There was a man at my Friends Meeting who died a couple years ago, and after his death, it became general knowledge that he had molested his daughters when they were young. It had been known to some, but not all (and not to me), and yet he remained a respected member of the Meeting for years and years until his death. And I just felt so conflicted, like why did the Meeting allow him to keep coming every week? Why was he not shunned? Why didn't anyone tell us so I could protect my daughters?
And everybody is trying to do the right thing.
posted by fancyoats at 9:56 PM on November 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
I mean, we all are supposed to believe kids when they tell they've been abused, right? You are supposed to believe a victim, not assume they are lying. If it had been true, would Lucas have deserved what happened? We want to protect our kids. We want to punish bad people, to hurt the people who have hurt the innocents. But even the "bad people" have worth and humanity.
There was a man at my Friends Meeting who died a couple years ago, and after his death, it became general knowledge that he had molested his daughters when they were young. It had been known to some, but not all (and not to me), and yet he remained a respected member of the Meeting for years and years until his death. And I just felt so conflicted, like why did the Meeting allow him to keep coming every week? Why was he not shunned? Why didn't anyone tell us so I could protect my daughters?
And everybody is trying to do the right thing.
posted by fancyoats at 9:56 PM on November 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
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posted by fancyoats at 1:19 PM on November 15, 2015