THE PLOT THUS FAR
A teacher 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.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
Lucas, a lonely primary school teacher who relishes his job and is popular with both the children and the local community. Just as he meets Nadja and begins a relationship with her, his relationship with another woman, 5-year-old Klara, lands him in immeasurable trouble. What happens is a completely innocuous misunderstanding, but the community, the ‘adults’ who are supposed to be rational and fair, turn into a lynch mob.
Director Thomas Vinterberg absolves Klara from absolute blame and sets the stage for unreasonable and sinister conclusions. Watching the film from here on out is an unforgettable and riveting experience. It is natural to assume The Hunt simply alludes to the concept of a witch hunt and contents itself with being dramatized fiction about falsely accusing the innocent. But if that were so, the brilliant scene where Klara was interviewed would not have alarmed with its disturbing methodology.
The Blu-Ray comes with featurettes, deleted scenes and a trailer. The DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track is superb for a quiet foreign drama. However, the 1080p transfer makes excellent use out of the Scandinavian soft lighting. It’s like that part of the country saw what Sven Nykvist was doing 30 years ago and said we’re good forever. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: 12/10/2013