Corrie Film Club
The next showing will be on Easter Sunday (20th April) as there is a Scout group in the hall on the 13th. Please note the change of date. The film to be shown is a gripping story called The Hunt, made by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg in 2013.
It touches on every teacher’s nightmare – that a child may involve him (or more rarely, her, in a garbled sexual accusation that results in public outrage and professional destruction. Lucas, the centre figure of the film, works at a local kindergarten and enjoys his warm relationship with the children. Lucas is divorced, with custody of his young son, and a relationship with Nadja, his co-worker at the kindergarten, develops into living together.
One of the kindergarten pupils, Klara, is the daughter of Lucas’s best friend Theo. Out of the blue, she accuses Lucas of showing his genitals to her, though she seems to have this confused with pornographic pictures shown to her by her older brother. The adults in the community believe her story, regardless of the self-contradictions.
Lucas is shunned by his community. His friendship with Theo is destroyed, the pressure causes him to break up with Nadja, and his son is publicly ostracised. The kindergarten staff pressurise other children at the kindergarten, who also “admit” to being abused; but they make the mistake of saying these episodes occurred in the basement of Lucas’s house, which in fact has no basement. His ostracism turns to violence. A brick is thrown through his window, and he is beaten by grocery store employees for trying to buy food. Somebody kills his dog.
On Christmas Eve, Lucas confronts Theo, without much success, but later, Theo overhears his daughter Klara apologising to Lucas as she drifts off to sleep. He realises Lucas is innocent, and visits him on Christmas Day with food and drink as a peace offering.
Tensions in the community lessen. Lucas and Nadja resume their relationship and Lucas’s son is accepted into the local hunting society as an adult. On a hunting expedition to celebrate this, somebody shoots at Lucas. Blinded by the setting sun, he can’t see who it is. All he can do is run.
The Hunt is an intelligent, questioning film about the way in which hysteria can grip an entire community. Mads Mikkelsen is utterly credible at Lucas, and the whole story rings terribly true.
The showing starts at 8:00 pm on Easter Sunday in Corrie Hall. Everyone is welcome and entry is free – though a contribution towards the hall’s expenses would be welcome.
