The patriarchal shine of a 60th birthday darkens into a battlefield of the soul: In Festen (The Celebration), Thomas Vinterberg’s searing debut and the first Dogma 95 film, the ritual of family gathering becomes a crucible in which repressed truths rise and decorum collapses. Set in the genteel countryside of Denmark, the bourgeois family assembles to toast the father – but when son Christian delivers a stunning speech, the festivities unravel into something far more primal. Shot with handheld camera, natural light, and stripped of music, Festen feels raw, immediate – almost like a confession. The absence of artifice becomes its own form of force: authenticity as moral provocation. Awarded the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998, Festen remains a landmark of European cinema – a film that transforms a banquet table into a courtroom of memory. A toast to the truth: bitter, necessary, and liberating.

Loan of the film print with kind support of HfG Karlsruhe.