The summer is over and after all of the blockbusters and comedies, it’s time for more serious genres. There’s nothing better to snap you from your sleep as a good old fashioned kick in the head (and heart) by the European cinema. Directed and written by Thomas Vinterberg, Jagten is truly an uncompromising movie that sets the standard for all of the “hyper-realistic” movies. Relentless and consistent, it just shatters your perceptions of justice, reality, and human nature, examining it objectively with us in the passenger seat. After Festen, this is Vinterberg’s second movie that I loved.
The lead role has been trusted to Mads Mikkelsen, more familiar as Hannibal (Hannibal series [2013]) and it’s sufficient to say that he didn’t disappoint, actually… Who knew that one crazy drug dealer from Pusher would go on to have such a career? Every shot and every event, no matter how insignificant, is crucial to Jagten, and with this dedication the movie gets you. Accustomed to PG ratings and unspoken rules of Hollywood when it comes to these subjects, we might find some of the scenes too intense, but not because of what’s being shown but because of the context and the emotions.
Lucas is an unemployed teacher who lives in a small town in Denmark. He starts working at a local kindergarten, trying to get a hold on his life after his wife left him and forbade him to see their son. With a little help from his friends, Lucas is slowly getting his life back on track, even one of his female coworkers starts flirting with him making him feel like it’s all going to be good again. But life sometimes has other plans for you, although I should use the word plan carefully because it indicates that there’s a thought-out effort behind events that take place in our lives and that they are not just some cruel products of coincidence and statistics…
If you want to get to know the people of Denmark, check out this movie because it basically sums up the life in this country (this is of course not related to the main subject). The thing that I just don’t see as true is the widespread catholicism because I thought that the country is anything but catholic. I heard recently that the purpose of art (this of course includes movies) is to ask questions, questions we don’t want to ask or we are unaware of.
This work of art does exactly that and in a calm and objective manner. You might have noticed that I didn’t mention what’s the subject or a theme of this movie, although I am sure that by now you have guessed it, the reason for that was my initial experience where I played just some random Danish movie and was blown away and my wish for you to experience exactly that. Purely subjective. And finally, after you have seen The Hunt, imagine if this movie was made in Hollywood. You can’t see it, can you? Neither can I.
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writer: Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Alexandra Rapaport, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrøm
Fun Facts: Budget: 3.5 million USD, Box Office 16,5 million USD
Rating:
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106476/
