Birthday Cake and Skeletons in the Wardrobe - A Review of Festen

'Festen' is a Dogma 95 film and as such should not be credited with a name of its author. From ten rules of the manifesto the movie breaks few, but despite that it remains a thrilling and deeply moving piece about how lack of communication and trust in the family destroys not only party atmosphere but the whole lives of family members.

The plot of the film is very simple. The head of the family, Helge Klingenfeldt-Hansen is celebrating his 60th birthday – and as such invites his whole family to his hotel for a commemorative dinner. The atmosphere becomes less festive, when the oldest son of Helge, Christian, decides to centre his toast speech around the sexual abuse he and his twin sister suffered from his father and how it lead to the suicide of the latter. From that moment on, the movie drastically changes, as the character strive to survive the night full of uncomfortable truths and emotions coming to the surface.

Thanks to the incredible acting, the movie plays deeply on the feelings of the audience. A special attention should be given to Ulrich Thomsen, who plays the main character – Christian. We do not doubt even for a second that everything happening is deeply affecting him. One can easily see how Christian changes under pressure that is put on him – on the one hand he wants the truth about the death of his sister to be known, on the other nobody in the family actively supports him. Thanks to the quality of the acting it is easy for us to feel sympathy for the character – and horror when we are confronted with his reality.

One thing that questions the reality of the film is how violent it is at times. In accordance to Dogma 95 there is no superficial actions like murders but there is quite a lot of skirmishes and violence in speech.  These issues do not taint the realism of the movie, as we are made believe that these scenes could actually happen and are in line with motivations of the characters. However it seems as if  every single character involved is mentally unstable at best and possibly a psychopath.

The movie is often described as black comedy drama, but the comedy part can be pretty questionable. Some of the scenes are absurd enough to be laughed at but whether one finds the movie funny depends a lot on one’s compassion. As previously mentioned, there is a lot of violence present and lot of the humour lays in the violence – therefore, as all black comedies, it may not be amusing for sensitive viewers.

Festen is not a movie you should choose for a light, Sunday afternoon watch. It deals with issues, which can throw some people off and it deals with them in a very emotional way, making the audience deeply involved in what is happening on the screen. Yet, if you are looking for a quality movie with great acting and are not afraid of shedding a tear or two, Festen it is a perfect choice for you.

Thanks for sticking around!

Nat