Mads Mikkelsen is not only at home on the international stage and in major Hollywood productions (from “Doctor Strange” to “Fantastic Beasts 2”), but in between he can also be seen time and time again in films from his Danish homeland. Besides “Der Rausch”, which won the Oscar for Best International Film, one title in particular stands out in the last few: “The hunt“.
“Das Fest” director Thomas Vinterberg stages productions here a gripping and provocative thriller drama about a village community that mutates into a self-righteous lynch mob as a result of false allegations of child abuse and the hunt for the main character, played brilliantly as usual by Mads Mikkelsen.
“The Hunt” is on Arte today, May 24, 2023, at 8:15 PM and can be seen there as usual without commercial breaks. If you have plans tonight, missed the broadcast for other reasons, or read this article too late, you can also stream “The Hunt” with an Amazon Prime Video subscription – but beware, the movie is really hard:
The focus of “The Hunt” is kindergarten teacher Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), who is actually quite content with his life in a sleepy Danish village, although he is going through a difficult divorce. But then Klara (Annika Wedderkopp), the four-year-old daughter of his best friend Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen), accuses him of an act of disappointed childish love that Lucas exposed himself to her.
From one moment to the next, Lucas finds himself in a storm of mistrust, fear, hatred and violence. His friends and colleagues turn their backs on him, he is shunned and excluded from the village and the situation continues to escalate until Lucas finally has to fear for his life…
Where is the line between righteous anger and lynching? Vinterberg addresses this difficult question in “The Hunt” in a multifaceted and profound way, without ever hitting the wrong note. The official FILMSTARTS review gives it an excellent 4.5 out of 5 stars, with our author Robert Cherkowski praising the thriller drama to the skies and even calling it one of the best dramas of 2012 in cinema.