The Hunt is a 2012 Danish film directed by Thomas Vinterberg, starring Mads Mikkelsen. It's available with English subtitles.

The story is about a man named Lucas, who works at a kindergarten. He's very well-liked in his community, as well as by his young students, including one little girl in particular who has a crush on him. Lucas' whole life is then torn apart when he's accused of pedophilia, and he can no longer live his daily life without being tormented by those who used to be his friends.

This is such a difficult film to watch because the audience knows from very early on that Lucas is innocent of any wrongdoing. It's a simple case of a young child becoming upset and coming up with a story, one which she doesn't even realize would implicate someone of something so terrible. She's too young to understand what she's doing, that she's ruining someone's life. The thing is, even if Lucas becomes vindicated, he's still going to have this stain upon him forever. No one is ever going to look at him the same way ever again. That's what makes this film so heartbreaking.

Mads Mikkelsen is an amazing actor, and this is without a doubt the best performance I've ever seen from him. He has won the Danish equivalent of an Oscar a few times in his career, and you can see why. The film itself was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, but sadly it did not win, even though, in my opinion, it absolutely deserved to.

The film is rated R and has a running time of 118 minutes. This is absolutely worth seeing, even if it is hard to watch. It will stick with you long after it's finished.