The Celebration
At a father's sixtieth birthday gathering, the eldest son stands to give a toast and calmly accuses him of the childhood sexual abuse the family has buried.
Cannes Jury Prize 1998 won
A wealthy Danish family gathers at a country hotel for the patriarch's sixtieth birthday. During the formal dinner the eldest son rises to give a toast and, before the assembled guests, names the sexual abuse he and his late twin sister suffered as children, and the evening unravels as the family struggles to hold its denial together.
The film shows the eruption of the unspeakable into a setting built to keep it hidden, and the machinery of family denial as it cracks. For a clinician it is a vivid account of how a system defends a secret and what happens when one member refuses to. It won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998.
Details
- 1998
- Denmark
- Danish
- Film