This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The family dinner party. Personally I like to avoid them. What is intended to be a celebration, people sitting down eating together, catching up with each other, gossiping, exchanging banter always tends to quickly descend into pettiness, bitterness and ultimately anger.Festen also known as The Celebration is an example why the dinner party is such fertile ground for dramatists. Especially the way it can highlight class conventions and differing mores.The directorial debut of Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, it was part of the Dogme 95 movement, a film made with a low budget, a documentary style, natural lighting, on location and no music score.The film undercuts tragedy with farce. It is a raw film, maybe because the director was a novice but it is also raw because of the content of the screenplay.There is a get together in a mansion of the 60th birthday of Helge Klingenfeldt-Hansen. His eldest son Christian has returned for the party. His twin sister recently committed suicide. His brother Micheal we quickly discover has temper and drink issues. We see him being cruel to his wife, a domestic servant and later to his sister's boyfriend. Helene their other sister is an anthropologist and she has brought her black boyfriend with her. Micheal despises him and is openly racist.During the course of the dinner, Christian stands to give a toast and tells everybody that his father abused him. The rest of the guests are unsure how to react. Christian repeats the accusation, he is forcibly thrown out by his brother Micheal, his mother wants him to apologise. The below stairs staff sensing something, even maybe knowing these accusations are true, make sure no one can escape as they get rid off the car keys.Tragedy, farce, black comedy. The dinner party increasingly becomes toxic, violent and the skeletons from the past are unearthed.

'Festen' was the first film made under the 'Dogme 95' manifesto, which called on film-makers to abandon trickery and simply record what the actors did in front of the camera. The merits of the manifesto lie less in the fact that such trickery is bad (indeed, there are always new tricks available to the clever artist, and the wholly naturalistic film would be wholly dull), but in that it encouraged directors to think about what they were doing, and not fall back on clichéd short-cuts to induce certain responses in the audience. But a great film is a great film, whatever the rules under which it is made; and 'Festen' reminded me of Robert Altman's 'The Wedding', which begins with a long zoom shot from a static camera, the complete antithesis of the hand-held style that 'Dogme 95' dictates.'Festen' starts as a black comedy, the tale of the re-union of a highly dysfunctional family. But it soon becomes clear there's a reason for this dysfunction, and the story soon becomes truly horrifying, yet utterly convincing in its depiction of how a bully can remain unchallenged. Perhaps the take-home message it that crimes that can never be forgiven can never be acknowledged, either. Although the darkness gradually overwhelms the humour, it's a superbly executed movie, ultimately sympathetic but completely unsentimental, and with an immediacy that is the benefit of the chosen method.

I watched this brave movie last night and thought it was fantastic in that the subject matter of how the painful realities of growing up in a family like this were brought to light in a creative way. It was brilliant in how this is attained and how important a film like this is for those who are silenced and hold the burden of growing up in these so called families where they are the victims and totally unbelieved when broaching the subject of this type of abuse. This is an important film for the future of humanity and celebrating that the TRUTH will set us free. I thank the writer and producer of the film for touching people in a way where the reality of this abuse is exposed. I also feel it is good film to give to friends and supportive people who are helping a loved one who has survived this and is healing. I admire these low budget films where it isn't about the money to produce it. It creates more of a dynamic and focus of human relations instead of all the props and fantasy. Bravo!

I really love this movie. I saw it on cable television a long time ago when I was house sitting and I had no idea who directed it and obviously since it is from Denmark I think or whatever other Nordic or Scandinavian country I certainly would not be able to recognize any of the actors in it.So I'm glad I was able to find it here on IMDb and it didn't take long. Not to say that since I didn't recognize anyone or know about the movie it and they weren't great, it is quite the opposite that is true, I was really amazed by how awesome this movie was.I don't want to spoil it but it is basically a big dinner party with an entire family there to celebrate but instead a terrible family secret is opened up after all these years.A really great story with superb acting that you should not miss, but the subject matter is definitely for mature audiences only so keep the kids away!