The Hunters (1996 film)

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The Hunters
Directed by	Kjell Sundvall
Produced by	Joakim Hansson, Björn Carlström
Written by	Kjell Sundvall, Björn Carlström
Starring	Rolf Lassgård, Lennart Jähkel, Helena Bergström, Jarmo Mäkinen
Distributed by	Sandrew Metronome
Release date(s)	1996
Running time	113 min.
Language	Swedish
IMDb profile

The Hunters (Jägarna) is a Swedish thriller from 1996 by film director Kjell Sundvall. A police officer from Stockholm moves back to his hometown in Norrland in northern Sweden. He starts to work on a long-running case where reindeer have been poached and soon discovers that his brother is involved.

The film was one of the biggest Swedish box-office hits ever and received two Guldbagge Awards for Best Direction (Kjell Sundvall) and Best Supporting Actor (Lennart Jähkel). It was also nominated for Best Actor (Rolf Lassgård), Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay.

Hollywood wanted to make a remake of this film and the American producers wanted it to be about cowboys in the Nevada desert, shooting wild horses for fun. Kjell Sundvall was positive to this at first but later changed his mind.

[edit] Plot

Erik (Rolf Lassgård), a Stockholm police officer reunites with his relatives upon the death of his abusive father in Norrbotten, where his brother Leif (Lennart Jähkel) resides as an adult, having been traumatized by the abuse to which level he gave up his dreams of becoming an opera singer, and instead stayed in the small community where he was convinced he belonged. This revealed-to-be tragedy is a substory to the main plot.
Being shocked after killing a man in duty, Erik has been transferred to the local field office. He soon starts to suspect his brother's friends, led by the half-Finnish Tomme (Jarko Mäkinen) to be the culprit pursuers of massive illegal hunt on reindeer and moose. At first he is mostly distressed with the local police's unwillingness to deal with the problem, but as the events moves on he discovers illegal weapons in Tomme's car outside a pub, and decides to intervene. The latter is close to assault Erik when he is saved by his brother, who is himself partly stigmatized by the others for the cause. It is later revealed that Leif in fact leads the illegal hunting, but out of love of his brother wants to keep him unaware and out of trouble.
The police is later stressed, as the community grow the more angry of that the matter of the illegal hunt isn't solved. Erik continues to spy on Tomme, and after breaking into his house he discovers illegal guns and carcasses for enormous amounts, but is confronted before he has the time to alert his colleagues and knocked unconscious. Leif decides to keep down operations until further notice, as the population has been to aware of the fact. Several members of the gang, though, has kept on a precious lifestyle, and are bound to pay loans and depts. Pursuing a big raid to recover the lost income, Tomme accidentally shoots and kills a Russian bilberry worker, and Leif pursues slits the throat of another as she witness them dumping the body in a lake. Unaware that the slaying of the woman has been seen by Ove, a kind but mentally retarded childhood friend of Erik, the five men decides to keep silent of the matter instead of going to the police, as Leif would face life.
Erik's situation becomes more distressed, as he suspects his brother is hiding something. He confronts him picking on his Filipino girlfriend and worker at the local pub, abusing her verbally, Erik pins down his brother and thereby ultimately betrays his respect. Led by Leif, the hunters goes to confront the Filipino once alone, assaulting and forcing her to sexual intercourse by violence. It is later revealed that she returned to the Philippines. Erik, meanwhile, tries to have Tomme's wife betray her husband and tell him something, but she refuses. Upon the arrival of a female attorney detective from Stockholm (Helena Bergström), the body of the Russian woman is found. With information from Ove, the police find the body of the male Russian, contaminated with the bullet. Erik tells Ove to stay inside and keep his door locked, but once discovering the source, Leif and the other's arrive to Ove's house and takes him out in the woods. Leif and attorney detective Anna arrives too late, as the gang has "accidentally" shot Ove, who remarkably tried to defend himself by shooting Leif in the chest upon discovering that the latter had emptied his rifle.
Though distressed by the obviousness of the crime, but seemingly unable to prove that the hunters deliberately, Erik is forced to pursue a hunt on the rifle of which the Russian was shot. In a final standoff he is fired at and nearly killed by Tomme, but manages to assault the latter using an iron bar, prosecuting Tomme for the murder. As he is unable (and perhaps unwilling) to have his brother convicted, Erik decides to return to Stockholm, and after having a final conversation with Leif he drives away in his car (having received his part for the inheritance from his dead father) but suddenly the house explodes ablaze, revealing that Leif had committed suicide. Leif returns to Stockholm, trying to pursue another life than that his father and his brother had attempted.