The Hunt

"The lie is spreading."

2012 1h 56m DA

🙌

8.1

BANGER

★8.1TMDB · 5,016

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“The lie is spreading.”

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Cast

Mads Mikkelsen
Lucas
Thomas Bo Larsen
Theo
Annika
Klara
Lasse Fogelstrøm
Marcus
Susse Wold
Grethe
Anne Louise Hassing
Agnes
Lars Ranthe
Bruun
Alexandra Rapaport
Nadja

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writers: Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm
Languages: Danish, Polish, English
Countries: Denmark, Sweden

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.8× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 14 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Danish, Polish, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Denmark, Sweden.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, shot by Charlotte Bruus Christensen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Nikolaj Egelund. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Janus Billeskov Jansen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Thomas Vinterberg directs. Charlotte Bruus Christensen behind the camera. Nikolaj Egelund scores. Janus Billeskov Jansen cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Denmark, Sweden. Dialogue in Danish, Polish, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 4.8× over at the box office.
3Released 14 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Danish, Polish, English.
5International production across 2 countries: Denmark, Sweden.
6Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, shot by Charlotte Bruus Christensen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Nikolaj Egelund. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Janus Billeskov Jansen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Mads Mikkelsen and Thomas Bo Larsen and Annika carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "The lie is spreading.".
11IMDB entry: tt2106476 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 20 themes, including "pedophilia", "denmark", "parent child relationship", "lie".
13Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Charlotte Bruus Christensen
Original score: Nikolaj Egelund
Editing: Janus Billeskov Jansen
Production design: Torben Stig Nielsen
Costume design: Manon Rasmussen
Makeup / hair: Bettina Lervig
VFX supervisor: Martin Madsen
Sound: Kristian Eidnes Andersen
Runtime: 116 min · 1h 56m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,800,000
Box office: $18,300,000
Return: 482% of budget
Original language: DA
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Hunt (2012)

Awards

Meeting Point Europe Award
European Film Award for Best Screenwriter
Nordic Council Film Prize

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Thomas Vinterberg

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Andres Gomez2016-04-15
★ 9/10
Well scripted, well performed, well staged. A round movie with a fantastic Mads Mikkelsen. Honestly, I think this movie would have been even better with some more minutes on it to develop the plot even further. Fantastic directing.
tmdb154355192021-04-15
★ 10/10
Viewers beware: this is not an easy or light watch. Mads Mikkelsen absolutely kills it as a somewhat lonely single man, who suddenly finds love and welcomes his son to live with him. That's all I'll reveal in the review, no spoilers here. But again, this isn't a light film, nor should it be. This tackles the subject matter with the poise it deserves, with stunning performances from Mads as well as the entire supporting cast. The script and cinematography lend themselves perfectly to the task at hand, delivering a well-crafted portrayal of love, friendship, and ruin. Excellent.
r96sk2023-10-14
★ 5/10
Happy to file this one under 'Films I Evidently Didn't Get'. <b>[Edit: I can't lie, I'm absolutely waffling below. Apologies in advance and totally feel free to ignore, I just typed whatever came into my head because I'm simply so unsure about this. I've articulated myself awfully I'm positive, way too many paragraphs and all that but hey-ho.]</b> I don't even know where to start with <em>'The Hunt'</em>, I'm finding it difficult to seperate my thoughts. On the one hand I dislike a lot about this, from the writing to the pacing to the supposed message of it and from the clearly phenomenal acting. I usually solely focus on my own opinions and type up my review before reading others', but every now and then a film comes along that I just don't get and when it's one with surprisingly (to me) high acclaim I have to read other reviews to see if I've just simply missed something glaringly obvious - which is, even now, entirely possible, don't get me wrong. However, the vibe of a handful of reviews on here I've seen is either hate the kid(s) or hate the people for believing the kid(s)... surely that's not the point of the film? I'm aware this is perhaps too UK-centric a reference, but if that is the case it is giving major Tory/Brexit/GB News vibes. As in, it's (hate this word, but...) some sorta 'wokery', we must get rid of cancel culture and all that stupid rhetoric. Pre-reading reviews, I just simply didn't understand what the film was trying to say... and even by stating whatever, why it went around the houses for nearly two hours and then proceded to not even wrap it up. I personally found it exhausting to watch, I admittedly don't tend to enjoy films that attempt these sorta 'smart' open-ended endings. If all the film is trying to say is that people can sometimes be falsely accused and have their lifes ruined by mob mentality, then fine... but I'm not sure using child abuse is quite the way to portray that idea. It's hardly a regular real life occurrence of children (very young children, at that) ruining grown mens lifes with sexual assault claims, is it? That's what I mean with what I said three paragraphs back, it's like you see on social media when a well known person is alleged to have done something serious and you get that section of people who immediately hate the likely victim for no reason. Now, perhaps I'm unsure about this 2012 release as I'm judging through my 2023 eyes, as in the aforementioned online rhetoric has murked the waters in terms of what the film is actually trying to say. Nowadays it's closely associated with those who use the terms 'woke', 'snowflake' etc. and that makes me feel uncomfortable, I can't lie. Now, even all that aside, solely as film I still didn't really enjoy it either. The way parts are written and characters act annoyed me, e.g. the shop scene. From them all willing to fight Lucas one second to the next when they're all scared because he head-butted someone; and how they didn't see that coming, or Lucas himself didn't see the initial punch coming. I acknowledge that's a random example, but it kinda typifies how odd the film felt to me at most moments. As I said, I do have one positive and that is the acting - which is truly top notch, frustratingly so if anything as it makes it difficult for me to rate the film. Mads Mikkelsen is truly outstanding, one of the best performances I've seen from him thus far. Thomas Bo Larsen is quality as well. No-one on the cast puts a foot wrong in truth, even youngster Annika Wedderkopp or the more experienced Anne Louise Hassing. I get severely awkward when I'm rating a film so much lower than the majority, which doesn't happen all that often at all but when it does it makes me cringe. I'm just being honest in how I feel though, even if it's totally possible that I've just got the wrong end of the stick completely. If I have, so be it.