100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 21: Jagten

Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 111 minutes
Year: 2012
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larson, Annika Wedderkop, Lasse Fogelstrøm

Description: Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is a teacher who 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.

Review: Thomas Vinterberg comes, with his film “Jagten”, awfully close to reality. Nothing seems wrong: Lucas is recently divorced and tries to make the best of it. That he doesn’t see his son enough bothers him, but Lucas is surrounded by a bunch of friends who support him. Life starts getting better when he finds love, but then something completely unexpected happens. Lucas, who is very loved by the kids he works with, is accused of child abuse by Klara, his best friends daughter.
His carefully rebuild life starts falling apart again. The lie that Klara told has a big impact on Lucas’ life. And it gets a little worse every day. You can off course understand the concern, but the story is starting to live its own life and a witch hunts starts. Lucas can’t even shop at his local supermarket anymore and his sweet dog isn’t safe either. Everyone believes Klara and no one seems to be interested in Lucas’ side of the story but his friend Bruun and his son Marcus.
In “Jagten” we don’t have to ask ourselves the question if Lucas is innocent or not, because we see exactly what happens. The remark of one little girl starts to lead its own life. Vinterberg puts the accent on the happenings after the accusation. This makes “Jagten” an interesting psychological study. Even when Klara tells her parents Lucas didn’t do anything, they twist her words so that Lucas is guilty. The strongest scene is set in a church, on Christmas eve, where Lucas confronts his fellow citizens.
I didn’t know what to expect from “Jagten”, but it left a great impression on me and it gets under your skin. This movie was haunting my mind after I watched it. Mikkelsen shines as the anti-hero, what a great performance. But young Annika Wedderkop impresses as well. “Jagten” has some strong themes like injustice, condemnation and paranoia. I was speechless, what a fantastic movie. The shocking climax shows us that Lucas will always have that stigma, the scars will never go away.

Rating: 5/ 5