Dogme # 1 - Festen 15 The Celebration NLFF 2003

Saturday 8 December, 16.20

Dir. Thomas Vinterberg. Denmark & Sweden 1998. 105 mins. In Danish, German & English with English subtitles. Feature Film.

In 1995 Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and a collective of Danish directors founded the Dogme movement to purge the artifice from filmmaking through a set of ten ‘stripped down’ rules. An uncompromising, gripping and cruelly comic drama, Festen was the first film from the collective.

A dark family drama, the story centres around an upper class birthday celebration that descends into chaos as damning family secrets are exposed.

With recent extraordinary revivals on stage and a US remake in the offing, Festen has now become an undisputed classic.

“Pure genius” {The Independent}