Festen
| Festen | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Thomas Vinterberg |
| Produced by |
Birgitte Hald Morten Kaufmann |
| Written by |
Thomas Vinterberg Mogens Rukov |
| Starring |
Ulrich Thomsen Henning Moritzen Thomas Bo Larsen Paprika Steen Birthe Neumann Trine Dyrholm |
| Music by | Lars Bo Jensena |
| Cinematography | Anthony Dod Mantle |
| Edited by | Valdís Óskarsdóttir |
| Distributed by | Scanbox Danmark |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | Denmark |
| Language |
Danish English |
| Budget | US$1.3 million |
Danish
Festen (pronounced [fɛsd̥ɛ̝n]) is a 1998 Danish film, produced by Nimbus Film and directed by Thomas Vinterberg. It was released under the title The Celebration in the United States.
The film tells the story of a family gathering to celebrate their father's 60th birthday. At the dinner, the eldest son publicly accuses his father of sexually abusing both him and his twin sister (who has recently killed herself). Vinterberg was inspired to write it with Mogens Rukov, based on a hoax broadcast by a Danish radio station.
It was the first film created under Dogme 95 rules, a movement of young Danish film makers who preferred simple production values and naturalistic performances. The film was selected as the Danish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Respected family patriarch and businessman Helge (Henning Moritzen) is celebrating his 60th birthday at the family-run hotel. Gathered together amongst many family and friends are his wife Else (Birthe Neumann), his sullen eldest son Christian (Ulrich Thomsen), his well-traveled daughter Helene (Paprika Steen), and his boorish younger son Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen). Christian's twin sister, Linda, has recently taken her life at the hotel.
Before the celebration dinner, Helene finds Linda's suicide note, but hides it in a medicine bottle after becoming upset by the contents (which are not revealed to the audience). Michael fights with his wife, whom he had earlier abandoned on the roadside with their three children, and then has sex with her. Michael later is pulled aside by a waitress with whom he had an affair (and had made pregnant) and then beats her when she disparages Helge. Later, during dinner, Christian makes a speech to the family in which he accuses his father Helge of sexually abusing him and his late sister Linda. There is an initial shocked silence, but the party gradually returns to normal, as the guests react by silent denial. In a private conversation in the pantry, a seemingly baffled Helge asks Christian about his motivations for slandering him, and Christian appears to recant his accusation. However, Christian is spurred to further action by hotel chef Kim (Bjarne Henriksen), a childhood friend who knows about the abuse. Christian then stands up and continues his toast by accusing Helge of causing Linda's death. Helge speaks to Christian alone and threateningly offers to announce in a toast Christian's troubled personal history, impotence with women and his perhaps inappropriately close relationship with his late sister, Linda. Christian says nothing in response to the threat. Further exacerbating the tensions of the day, Helene's black boyfriend Gbatokai (Gbatokai Dakinah) shows up, enraging the racist Michael who later leads most of the partygoers in singing the Danish song "Jeg har set en rigtig negermand" in a racist way to offend him. During a toast, Else makes a series of back-handed compliments towards her children, accusing Christian of having an overactive imagination as a child and asking him to apologize for his earlier accusation. Christian responds by accusing her of interrupting Helge during one of the rapes, yet not interfering with the incident, and calling her a "cunt". Michael and two other guests violently eject Christian from the hotel. When Christian walks back in, they beat Christian and tie him to a tree in the nearby woods.
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