The trail of the hunters

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Movie
German title The trail of the hunters
Original title Jagarna
Country of production Sweden
original language Swedish
Publishing year 1996
length 113 minutes
Rod
Director Kjell Sundvall
script Kjell Sundvall
Bjorn Carlström
production Björn Carlström
Joakim Hansson
music Björn J: son Lindh
camera Kjell Lagerroos
cut Darek Hodor
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
The Night of the Hunters

The track of the hunters (original title: Jägarna ) is a Swedish crime film by Kjell Sundvall from 1996. The world premiere in Germany was on February 28, 1997 on the pay channel Premiere . The world premiere on free TV took place on March 16, 1998 on ZDF . The video premiere of the film came out on May 2, 2001 under the title The Hunters .

action

Erik, a policeman in Stockholm , goes to Norrbotten , a province in northern Sweden on the Finnish border, to attend his father's funeral . At the funeral he meets his brother Leif, who has stayed with his father all these years and has given up his dream of becoming an opera singer.

Erik, who shot and suffered a man while on duty, moves into his father's house and takes up his new job with the local village police. He enjoys being home and doing activities with his brother. They go hiking and fishing and talk about the old days. The press even celebrates Erik as the returnee of the year. He's been a hero to the people here since he was shot while serving. However, after the will is opened, it turns out that there is nothing left of his father's inheritance other than the house, and he argues with Leif. He also has to discover that his brother has become a stranger to him and just shoots his own dog just because it doesn't listen to him immediately.

When Erik is driving his car, he meets Leif's best friend, the semi-finisher Tomme, who is on tour with some hunting friends. He suspects him of illegal reindeer and elk hunts . The local police have so far had no interest in investigating the poaching and have already been criticized by the press for this. Only when Erik finds illegal weapons in Tommes car do the police finally intervene. Erik continues to shadow Tomme and finds guns and animal carcasses in large numbers in his house. Before Erik can leave the house, he is beaten up. He then summons everyone involved. However, everyone can show an alibi and even Erik's boss is not ready to investigate the poachers. So Erik has to find out that everyone is sticking together here and that he is in a difficult position. For the press he is the only one who claims that there is organized crime here. Thereupon the population and also his colleagues distance themselves from him.

Leif, who in the meantime turns out to be the initiator of the hunt, wants to give up the business due to the pressure to investigate, but many of his cronies have developed an expensive lifestyle and need the money. Tomme wants to set up a huge hunt to make up for the loss caused by Leif's retreat. Tomme accidentally shoots a Russian berry collector and sinks the body in a lake. Another collector is a witness and is then killed by Leif, but this act is also observed. The mentally handicapped Ove, a childhood friend of Erik's, happened to be in the forest and noticed everything with horror, but did not move in his hiding place, so that none of the men noticed him. Hakan, a member of the hunting group, says they couldn't hide all that, but Leif and Tomme decide not to tell the police anything.

Due to Erik's allegations, which are also directed against the police, an internal police investigation begins. The public prosecutor Anna, who was entrusted with the task, also reaches her limits as long as the population covers the men. The inadequate forensic evidence at the crime scenes also complicates the investigation. However, she achieved a partial success when Erik managed to locate an unregistered rifle. As a result, one of the village police officers who hid the rifle is suspended from duty.

Erik realizes that his brother is hiding something from him. He also has to forcibly call him to order when he insults his Filipino friend Nena. It confirms Erik in his work, but the population still disagrees. At the public honor for the returnee of the year, the award is only silently accepted by everyone and no one applauds. While Erik is still at the ceremony, the five poachers attack Nena, who then disappeared. When the dead berry collector is found, Erik already fears that it could be Nena. The forest area is searched and Erik finds carving marks that can only come from the disabled Ove. So he questions him and learns that his own brother killed the woman and that there is still a victim. The police then found the car with the second body in the lake. Erik urges Ove to stay at home and lock all doors and only open them for him when he comes to him tomorrow. But Ove is previously lured into the forest by Leif and his people, where he is supposed to shoot an elk with them. Erik and the public prosecutor are late, they find Ove, who was "accidentally" shot. Since all five shot, nobody can be held accountable for the hunting accident.

Since Ove is no longer available as the only witness against the poachers and murderers, Erik only has to convince his brother to surrender or to find the rifle with which the berry collector was shot. Tomme lies in wait for him and tries to kill him. However, Erik can overpower him and turn him over to justice. Tomme admits that he accidentally shot the berry collector, but Leif is responsible for the murdered woman. Erik is unable to report his brother. He also wants to know from him what they did with Nena and where she is, but he won't reveal what. Leif promises Erik to face the police. When he drives away from the common house, Leif sets fire to the house, which explodes shortly afterwards. Erik refuses his boss's offer to stay and drives back to Stockholm.

background

The film, which had a budget of 17 million Swedish crowns, was one of the biggest box office hits in Sweden.

Between 1998 and 2007, director Kjell Sundvall shot ten episodes of the crime series Kommissar Beck . Thomas Hedengran made his debut in a feature film in this film, and Joakim Hansson made his debut as a film producer.

Hollywood filmmakers wanted to buy the rights to the film in order to make a remake. At first, Kjell Sundvall was generally positive about this; But when he learned that the main features of the plot should be transferred to a cowboy film, he declined.

Reviews

"Crime film, which shows the upright struggle of the individual against a conspiratorial criminal community."

- Lexicon of international film

At Moviepilot.de they say: “It is a very exciting, logically structured thriller that sometimes even suggests an emotional side and strikes socially critical tones. [...] The brother as a murderer is emotionally well integrated. The search for evidence delays the end a bit, but does not detract from the tension. "

"Oppressive and extremely exciting."

- Cinema

Awards

At the presentation of the Swedish Guldbagge Film Award in 1997, the film was awarded in the categories of Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Lennart Jähkel).

Sequels

In 2011 the movie Die Nacht der Häger (Jägarna 2) followed , in the lead role of which Rolf Lassgård can be seen again. Kjell Sundvall took over the direction again. The movie was released in the Överkalix location on August 14, 2011, in all of Norrland on September 2, 2011, in the rest of Sweden on September 9, 2011.

In 2018 the television series Jäger - Tödliche Gier (Jägarna) followed , in which Lassgård again played the leading role of Erik Bäckström.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cost on Internet Movie Database , accessed February 25, 2014.
  2. ↑ Success in Sweden on zdf.de ( Memento from February 25, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ^ Trivia on Internet Movie Database , accessed February 25, 2014.
  4. ↑ Die Spur der Jäger - Review on moviepilot.de, accessed on February 25, 2014.
  5. ↑ Short review on cinema.de, accessed on February 25, 2014.