I didn’t pay a lot of attention to Mads Mikkelsen until A Royal Affair (if you have not seen it, make haste), and I’m not likely to forget him after The Hunt.

Mikkelsen plays a beleaguered kindergarten teacher, Lucas, whose life seems to be improving just before he is wrongly accused of molesting a little girl and then things get much worse than before.

Director Thomas Vinterberg handles tricky subject matter with great skill and delicately unravels the narrative in ways that draw in the viewer, make the film painful to watch, and yet form a connection to the story so strong that it is impossible to turn away.

This is the understated type of filmmaking I tend to have a predilection for, but – even aside from it being one of my preferred styles – The Hunt is a thought-provoking film worth watching, especially for Mikkelsen’s wonderful performance.