The Celebration

The Celebration was the first Dogme film to appear. In my humble opinion it is also by far the best. It is the gripping, unforgettable story of a terrible family secret that nobody can or will believe when it is brought into the open.

When Helge Klingenfelt Hansen turns 60, he throws a big party on his country estate. One of his grown-up sons Christian has prepared two speeches, both dealing with his father's sexual abuse of himself and his twin sister Linda who has committed suicide.

The purpose of the Dogme rules is to simplify the shooting of a film - and to create attention. As a consequence The Celebration is characterized by handheld camera, bad lighting etc, but I doubt that it is as unintended and random as it may look at first sight. Anyway, as soon as you get caught up in the story, you will forget about weird camera angles and images out of focus.