A family gathering turns into something resembling a Greek tragedy in this English translation of Thomas Vinterberg and Mogens Rukov’s classic Dogme film.

Apparently based on a hoax broadcast on a Danish radio station, Festen is set at hotelier Helge’s 60th birthday.

When his eldest son Christian raises the first toast he also drops a bombshell about the recent death of his twin sister, which looks set to tear the family apart.

Festen was the first film to follow the stripped-down and ultra-realistic Dogme 95 rules of movie-making, which was a reaction against the mega-budget Hollywood cinema filling screens across the world. It won the Jury Prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival in the year of its release.

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