Counting down to the EFAs | The Hunt

Country: Denmark

Director: Thomas Vinterberg

Screenwriters: Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm

Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Susse Wold, Annika Wedderkopp and Lasse Fogelstrøm

NOMINATED FOR: Best Film, Director, Actor (Mads Mikkelsen), Editors (Janus Billeskov Jansen, Anne Østerud)

Now classed among the wunderkinds of European cinema, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg first garnered international attention with the awkward family gathering drama Festen in 1998 - which was also an inaugural work of the Danish-bred 'Dogme' school: a rigorous cinematic philosophy enforcing a stripped down approach to filmmaking (no external music, no artificial lighting...)

But if The Hunt follows through on Vinterberg's preoccupation with the destruction of innocence among families and tight-knit communities, its style is as conventional as they come.

With a story that is free of any twists and turns save for its initial premise - divorced kindergarten teacher Lucas (Mikkelsen) is wrongfully accused of sexually molesting his best friend's young daughter - the film's cosy Danish village landscape (all soft-lit wood-panelled cottages) doesn't allow for much artistry on the visual front.

LISTEN: Counting down to the EFAs | Podcast

Rather - and in line with Vinterberg's previous work - our attention is riveted to a deeply affective performance by former James Bond villain Mikkelsen, who shoulders his terrifying burden with an alienating stoicism.

Vinterberg does a good job at stretching out the tension until it becomes nearly unbearable.

But though its exploration of society's all-too-willing urge to locate convenient scapegoats, and its focus on the unsettling fragility of children are certainly worthwhile themes, because there's never any real doubt about Lucas's innocence, The Hunt remains, in the end, something of a one-dimensional exercise.

Keep checking maltatoday.com.mt and MaltaToday Midweek and Sunday for more on the European Film Awards. You can also listen to our podcast on the Awards by clicking here.