Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh until Thu 13 Dec

Thomas Vinterberg / Denmark / 2012 / 115 min

The wave of public anger resulting from the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse allegations shows how crimes involving children hold particular taboos within the public sphere. Thomas Vinterberg’s haunting character study portrays how quickly reputations can be eroded when the destruction of a child’s innocence comes into question. Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) lives a lonely life in a small Danish town working at the local nursery. When a false accusation of sexual inappropriateness is brought against him however, his quiet, tranquil life begins to disintegrate.

The majestic wintry Danish countryside reflects the icy attitudes shown to Lucas and accentuates his abandonment by (nearly) everyone he knows. Mikkelsen’s understated but gripping angst is in keeping with Vinterberg’s stark realism, aiding in transposing elements of the film onto our own lives. While it’s frustrating to watch the townspeople’s well-intentioned but misplaced concerns turn from apprehension into persecution, like with Fritz Lang’s Fury, Vinterberg is demonstrating the ease with which hearsay can become fact in the fervour of emotionally sensitive accusations. What’s most affecting however, are the sparse protestations among Lucas’ friends and the compliance of the society into believing an infant’s imaginings. Vinterberg’s uneasy but compelling film comments not just on the willingness of society to believe the worst, but also how in relishing the fight against a common enemy, they abandon common sense.

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