After a bitter divorce, Lucas (Mikkelsen) is finally getting his feet back on the ground with a new job as a kindergarten teacher, and a budding relationship with a colleague (Rapaport). He’s looking forward to his teenage son Marcus (Fogelstrom) coming to live with him. But Lucas’s life starts to fall apart after a young girl at his school, Klara (Wedderkopp), makes a misguided accusation of improper physical behavior. Soon the staff, his friends and the inhabitants of his small town have made up their own minds about his guilt. Lucas is convicted without a trial; what can he do to clear himself?

One of the original co-founders of the Dogme 95 movement, Vinterberg works in a similar vein in this naturalistic, sober drama. Embracing story, acting and theme, he crafts a compelling, devastating film about the irrationality of fear. Mikkelsen is deeply sympathetic as the beleaguered Lucas, and Vinterberg also coaxes a remarkable performance from young star Wedderkopp. “Hunt” is a gripping, unnerving tale of mass hysteria, executed with intelligence and restraint.