Do your kids have headaches or nightmares?
Question posed to all parents at a kindergarten school meeting in a small Danish community after one child alleges inappropriate behavior by a school worker in the Danish film The Hunt
Much as we are loath to admit it, a lot of kids wear the devil’s cloak and wreak havoc even at a tender age.
Whether their harm is intended or unintended is beside the point.
That’s why in my country we sometimes fling kids into prison and throw away the keys.
Of course, I’ve never been one so naive as to believe in the innocence of children. For I’ve spotted the gleam of evil in many a young eye, Brown, White and Black, on several occasions.
Last night I watched the Danish film The Hunt (2012) on DVD (with English subtitles).
The film confirmed my opinion on Satan working his fiendish tricks inside the minds of small kids.
Level 8 Earthquake
When a young child with a vivid imagination lies about inappropriate behavior by an adult, the life of Lucas (played with enormous elan by Mads Mikkelsen) who works in the kindergarten of a small Danish town is torn asunder.
A divorcé with a teenage son, a difficult ex-wife and a budding new relationship, Lucas is already walking on a rough road in life.
The child’s unthinking, ‘stupid’ act hits Lucas like a Level 8 earthquake in the small close-knit rural community.
To make matters worse, the finger-pointing child turns out to be offspring of his best friend Theo.
As it often happens in life, when it rains it pours.
Once the hunt starts, it doesn’t stop.
Soon Lucas is believed to have molested other kids too.
Fragility of Relations
The once-friendly community turns severely hostile to Lucas.
And in a moment of wild rage, Lucas severs one of his last lifelines, his budding relationship with the immigrant co-worker Maria.
In The Hunt, director Thomas Vinterberg has done a superb job of exploring a how man’s social standing is ever so fragile in a community
Loved today.
Loathed tomorrow!
Hanging on the slender thread of a child’s accusation.
The Hunt is an extremely powerful movie and Mads Mikkelsen has delivered an outstanding performance of an innocent man whose life is wrecked by a false accusation.
As the movie’s ending demonstrates, once wrecked, relations are never the same again even if they appear to have returned to normal on the surface.
We first encountered Mads Mikkelsen four years ago in After the Wedding, a Danish movie with a connection to India.
But The Hunt is a better movie and Mikkelsen’s sensitive performance of an universally despised character will be talked about for a long time to come.
Mikkelsen won the Best Actor Award at the 2012 Cannes film Festival for his performance in The Hunt, which is also Denmark’s entry for the upcoming Oscars.
I’d be very disappointed if The Hunt fails to win the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards.
Obviously, The Hunt is not meant for the Indian mongrels who salivate over charlatans like Vijay, Ajith, Salman Khan etc and just cannot distinguish wheat from chaff.
SearchIndia.com is pleased to recommend The Hunt to discerning moviegoers. Netflix has the DVD if you’re interested.
The Hunt Review – Kids are Far From Innocent added by SearchIndia.com on
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At one point in the movie, I started hating the child – Klara.. but such was the performance of the little kid..
Was surprised you didn’t mention Anna Wedderkopp.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. Just a few seconds back before I saw your comment I wondered if I should do it…But I’m not convinced Annika Wedderkopp’s performance rose to great heights.
Annika seemed to have a fixed expression on her face. For a young child supposedly endowed with a “vivid imagination” her lack of varied expressions did not make sense.
It’s a fairly common fallacy to mistake someone as a good actor just because his/her role is crucial in the film.
This was Mads Mikkelsen’s film. Period!
2. I’d put Dakota Fanning and Chloe Moretz far ahead as child actors.
BTW, Wall Street Journal had an interview with Chloe on Jan. 18, 2014.
http://live.wsj.com/video/chloe-grace-moretz-isnt-your-average-16-year-old/30B12392-F21A-4BC6-97E9-5709FC27E262.html
Did you get time to see Blue is the Warmest Color?
I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t make the Oscar cut. But probably because it had plenty of nudity and if I remember it right there was one sex scene which went on for 15 or so mins.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
No, I was planning to see it in Washington DC on Jan. 7.
But I chickened out and canceled my trip because of the polar vortex. Remember, that was supposed to be one of the coldest days?
Watched Christopher Nolan’s short Doodlebug yesterday.
For a 3-minute long film, the conception was good.
SI, have you watched Nolan’s The Following?
Not a great debut, but worth watching.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Yes, we’ve watched The Following but did not review it.
I remember it to be a Black & White film.
Off topic: 3 NRI headlines at the same time on TOI…
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/us-canada-news/NRI-scientist-AJ-Paulraj-wins-tech-Nobel/articleshow/29220334.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/us-canada-news/Neel-Kashkari-Indian-American-of-Kashmiri-origin-to-run-for-California-governors-post/articleshow/29220250.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/us-canada-news/Indian-American-professor-Rakesh-Khurana-named-dean-of-prestigious-Harvard-College/articleshow/29238101.cms
and then this… http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Jiah-Khans-mother-seeks-US-intervention-as-Mumbai-cops-refuse-to-probe-murder-angle/articleshow/29224752.cms
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. Regarding your last link, as an American citizen I demand Salman Khan, Ajith, Joseph Vijay etc be held criminally responsible for causing me great mental trauma through their horrific crimes on American soil via American screens and enabled with the help of American currency! 😉
Since I now believe much of what happens in the world is theatre (i.e. entertainment for the viewers/readers), I believe Jiah Khan’s mother Rabiq Khan is entitled to her time on the stage.
Surprise, surprise! I was unaware that Jiah Khan was born in New York City! Now that I know it, I can consider it a priceless addition to my corpus of knowledge! 😉
2. Regarding Neil Kashkari, why is it that the worst elements of Indian-American politics tend to be on the Republican side. I hope, believe and pray that this bald coot Kashkari creature loses miserably as he is fated and destined to do so.
Two Indian-American Republican whackos (Piyush Jindal a.k.a. Bobby Jindal and Nimrata Nikki Randhawa a.k.a. Nikki Haley) are far too many.