The premise is interesting:
A child (attention seeking with her parents being busy fighting each other) feels again rejected by her father's best friend, her beloved kindergarden teacher, after making misguided advances towards him.
***SPOILER ALERT*** Angry, she tells the kindergarden director that she does not like said teacher (Maddsen) anymore because he showed her his aroused genitals.
Having heard that story, the director is perplexed, does not know immediately what to do with the situation and eventually informs the teacher that someone has said something involving sexual conduct towards children.
The director then understandably feels the matter must be further investigated and asks a friend (random guy? Psychologist?) to help her find out if the child told the truth and what else there is to the story.
But then, she starts a witch hunt where she is quick to tell everyone about the sexually child abusing teacher (colleagues, all parents and telling them even more children may have been abused but not to panic) and the only one who hears nothing about it all is the accused teacher, until a good while later when the rest of the village is all informed. Which all happened over the course of a weekend.
= = The real problem of the movie then is a different one: Every adult in this show is stupid. Not one is at least considering the possibility that the child may have lied - it is a child - or to talk to the accused (given that a lot of the parents were close friends with the teacher).
And that the teacher himself, even once he knows the details of who accused him of what, does not defend himself in the least and instead only asks everyone if they actually believe he did it. Who would do that?!? The drama of the movie only can play out because the idiot of a teacher acts completely unnatural by not even trying to free himself from the accusations.
At that point, the movie could still have taken an interesting turn. Up to this point, the audience was first made to believe that the child made up the story and the teacher is innocent. You got emotionally invested, were touched by the child's dilemma, feared for the teacher, exasperated at the town folk, hoping it would all end well. There is a scene were the child confesses to her mother she lied but the mother immediately dismisses it as her daughter repressing the memory (damn you mother) and with everyone finally paying attention to the child and the weight of the lie even the child becomes unsure of what really happened. At this moment, the audience is still meant to believe nothing really happened (because we saw how the whole thing played out).
THAT was a moment opening up the possibility to an interesting plot twist later on.
= =
Continuing in the story, after some turmoil, the town slowly found back to its senses, the teacher gets acquitted.
Then an end that is neither end nor does it seem to mean much: the teacher is part of a hunting party and someone from somewhere shoots a bullet next to him. Curtains. . What does that mean now? Where does that leave us? Not everyone is happy? Maybe someone wanted revenge or release their anger, maybe not... who cares about that kind of question at that point, lest call that the final moment and conclusion of a supposed masterpiece?!?
***SPOILER ALERT*** Angry, she tells the kindergarden director that she does not like said teacher (Maddsen) anymore because he showed her his aroused genitals.
- Here already, I wonder how credible it is that a child that age would tell THIS story. Not just because of the mention of his erected penis but for suggesting that she has at least an inkling of an idea that telling this story will cause him trouble.
Having heard that story, the director is perplexed, does not know immediately what to do with the situation and eventually informs the teacher that someone has said something involving sexual conduct towards children.
- At this point, the reaction of the teacher and director are highly unbelievable. He asks for details (which he is denied), then she immediately wraps up the conversation going back to business as usual. Which he then also does.
The director then understandably feels the matter must be further investigated and asks a friend (random guy? Psychologist?) to help her find out if the child told the truth and what else there is to the story.
- A female kindergarden director asks a man and stranger to the child, to tell him the truth about the supposedly traumatizing event of sexual abuse by someone close to the child? That friend (one can only hope he is not meant to be a professional social worker or psychologist) then puts a story of abuse into the childs head, feeding her with details he makes up and taking her passive nodding as affirmation of his story. As does the director, now fully convinced that her colleague is a monster because in her experience as a kindergarden teacher/director she says "children do not lie" (WTF - but okay, it is not impossible that a kindergarden director would be completely delusional, gullible and stupid).
But then, she starts a witch hunt where she is quick to tell everyone about the sexually child abusing teacher (colleagues, all parents and telling them even more children may have been abused but not to panic) and the only one who hears nothing about it all is the accused teacher, until a good while later when the rest of the village is all informed. Which all happened over the course of a weekend.
= = The real problem of the movie then is a different one: Every adult in this show is stupid. Not one is at least considering the possibility that the child may have lied - it is a child - or to talk to the accused (given that a lot of the parents were close friends with the teacher).
And that the teacher himself, even once he knows the details of who accused him of what, does not defend himself in the least and instead only asks everyone if they actually believe he did it. Who would do that?!? The drama of the movie only can play out because the idiot of a teacher acts completely unnatural by not even trying to free himself from the accusations.
At that point, the movie could still have taken an interesting turn. Up to this point, the audience was first made to believe that the child made up the story and the teacher is innocent. You got emotionally invested, were touched by the child's dilemma, feared for the teacher, exasperated at the town folk, hoping it would all end well. There is a scene were the child confesses to her mother she lied but the mother immediately dismisses it as her daughter repressing the memory (damn you mother) and with everyone finally paying attention to the child and the weight of the lie even the child becomes unsure of what really happened. At this moment, the audience is still meant to believe nothing really happened (because we saw how the whole thing played out).
THAT was a moment opening up the possibility to an interesting plot twist later on.
= =
Continuing in the story, after some turmoil, the town slowly found back to its senses, the teacher gets acquitted.
- Now this still should be a drama, wounds that will hardly heal, some people still not convinced and so on, a lesson to be learned about witch hunts. People feeling bad and not knowing where to stuff their guilt, avoiding the teacher or preferring to remain angry at him for how this demonstrated their own imperfection. And then in a great possibility for said plot twist, some detail could have been found out (by the audience and/or the town) that he actually had been molesting the child after all. Besides from the benefit of the typical plot twist emotion in the audience, this twist would have explained his reaction a bit: not defending himself, asking people if they thought he did it. On a superficial level, it would have added thrill, on a deeper level, it would have put us into turmoil over what is and what is not truth and the right behavior in such cases, how hard it is to be certain and how wrong we can be even when it turns out we were right or vice versa.
- but no (!) instead he gets acquitted from lack of evidence and everyone is happy again, everything forgiven and forgotten. Friends are friends again, the girl plays around the teacher and other adults.
Then an end that is neither end nor does it seem to mean much: the teacher is part of a hunting party and someone from somewhere shoots a bullet next to him. Curtains. . What does that mean now? Where does that leave us? Not everyone is happy? Maybe someone wanted revenge or release their anger, maybe not... who cares about that kind of question at that point, lest call that the final moment and conclusion of a supposed masterpiece?!?
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