Thomas Vitenberg’s latest film, Jagten (The Hunt), can be seen as a metaphor for how people forgive but they never forget. It might sound romantic in a context where we are talking about a director that was a co-founder of Dogma 95 together with Lars von Trier, another very controversial film director. The artistic manifesto became a cult. Years have passed and Dogma’s toughness diminished.

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Film poster

The film concentrates on Lucas’ story. Lucas is a caretaker in a small Danish town who is accused of pedophilia. The script comes with some objective and interesting ideas like the little joke that Klara’s brother makes about the iPad and the fact that Lucas is used to walk with the girl ignoring a kiss she gives him as if she was playing. These ideas come from an objectivity that the director’s cinema-verite deals with.

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Vinterberg is not taking any sides as if he were playing a chess game, but, still, Lucas is disadvantaged and he has only one support- his son, Marcus. His allies are people whose mentality is that of calm persons.

On the other side there is the girl, her family (her father is Lucas’ best friend), Lucas’ lifelong friends, Lucas’ girlfriend and the entire city.

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Klara and the teacher

Fights take place, people accuse each other, others are rejected – these are all scenes that look as if taken from action movies. Vinterberg is subtle with each scene. When Marcus goes to ask Klara’s family explanations, he enters in a conflict with other friends that were in the house. Mad, he wants to hit a tall solid guy and has to jump in order to reach the man’s cheek. The humor remains in the back of the scene, since it is quickly erased by the reactions the characters have.

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Lucas and his best friend, Klara’s father

Another example is the scene where Lucas is beaten by the employees of a supermarket where he used to shop. He is kicked out but he comes back to hit the butcher that first hit him. Vinterberg, therefore, erases anything that would look like a mainstream action film -  the motivation is that Lucas only wanted his bag with the shopping he made, and this is a resort for him to protect his manhood: he is a man that can fight back.

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Lucas and his son, Marcus

Although you might have seen him in other films and you might know how talented he is, Mads Mikkelsen is a revelation here as a man who struggles with an apparently eternal guilt. In Jagten we have a confirmation of his talent to interpret different characters. He went to Hollywood and took part in several projects, but changed nothing when it comes to his qualities and the richness of his facial expression.

Jagten has several beautiful images, like the final scene when Lucas is aware that the fake guilt will follow him everywhere. Another scene is the one with the first snow where Klara is in close up shows a little hope after we have seen the girl’s brother with the eyes in tears where he became aware that he is, in fact, the one to blame.

by Bogdan Drumea

Bogdan Drumea tries very hard to become a scriptwriter and when he has the time he writes film reviews and reviews about metal concerts and albums. He tries to maintain his imagination vivid due to horror films, fantasy films, BD and video games.