Hunter 1

This is a great movie about how it can be in the north of Sweden, Norrland. The story is about a police, played by Rolf Lassgård, returning to Norrland after have lived and worked in Stockholm, the capitol of Sweden. Soon after his return he starts a investigation about illegal hunting in the area. This leads to lots of conflicts with the people in the area.....

THE HUNTERS is a crime thriller about a Swedish cop who returns to his home town to discover a hotbed of crime and deceit as he pursues a reindeer poaching gang. This stars WALLANDER actor Rolf Lassgard and it does feel very much like a Henning Mankell story, by which I mean it's a classic slice of Scandi-crime dripping with atmosphere and suspense.

The story that plays out is very nearly as icy as the chilly background in which the tale takes place. Certainly it's an exploration of the dark side of the human soul, with a typical police procedural in the first half giving way to something much more sinister and murderous in the second. Rolf Lassgard and Lennart Jahkel are excellent in the lead roles as a pair of brothers driven apart by living at opposite ends of the moral spectrum.

The only reason I'm not a massive fan of this genre is that I don't like the way that the criminals are never made to really pay for their crimes, due to the limitations of the justice system (which are all too apparent here). I prefer the sort of film where the protagonist goes outside of the law in order to bring the bad guys some true justice. Still, THE HUNTERS trades crowd-pleasing vengeance for chilly realism, offering no easy answers or a perfect ending; it's as dark and quietly devastating as it gets.

The drama gets the viewer involved, some of the scenes are intense.

You work up a hatred for a group of bully, savage like locals, and local people hypocritically convincing themselves there is no local crime, actually turn a blind eye to it.

What transpires is a drama which at the conclusion does not deliver the just desserts to the characters that it should.

There are some appalling crimes and corruption, but apparently the justice system cannot take any action.

The opening scene of the slaughter and butchery of reindeer is to be avoided.

The hunters is a steady and mostly enjoyable thriller. I liked some of the acting and I liked the sense of the setting as well. I thought Rolf Lassgard was solid as Erik and Jarmo Makinen was actually a standout in his villainous role. The story line on paper is good and I felt like it was heading in a direction that I really liked but as the film went on I ended up feeling a bit let down. I expected a darker and more brooding tone than was actually delivered. I felt that as it progressed parts of the storyline and acting started to delve into the unbelievable and as a result of this it detracted from the overall quality of the thriller. I feel like the tone wasn't serious enough to coincide with events in the film and at various stages in the film things started to veer towards the ridiculous. The villains were over exaggerated, which turned it from a credible murder story into a story line that escalated too quickly without real substance. Overall I felt a bit disappointed and underwhelmed.

"Jagarna" was brought to Canadian audiences via the Showcase TV network during a Scandinavian film festival -- and thank goodness it was! What an amazing character-driven story which not only delves into a poaching conspiracy but the emotionally-charged relationship between two brothers. Pure brilliance and highly recommended. An all-time favorite.