Realistic movie about disclosing CSA

Realistic movie about disclosing CSA

blacken

Moderator Coordinator
Staff member
I just watched a movie called Festen: The Celebration (1998). Its a Danish film with English sub-titles. Its about a man's (Helge) 60th Birthday Party/ Family Reunion.
The whole movie is about; family, secretes, denial, disclosure, ...... coming to terms with/facing/exposing, your perp, & the possible healing that could occur.

The oldest son (Christian) reads a speech disclosing how his Dad raped him & his twin sister (Linda) as children.

The movie does a fine job of showing how the shocked family members try to deny what they heard.

Christian recants after being confronted by his father, But with the help of the chef (a childhood buddy), Christian gets the courage to continue to relay this horrible disclosure to the family.
He prepossess a toast to his dad, Happy Birthday to the man who murdered his daughter.
Still, No-one believes him. And Mike becomes hostile towards him.

Another sister (Helen) finds a note that Linda had hidden in her room. Its a very damning letter.
Helen hides the letter as she cant deal with the implications. As it was believed Linda accidentally drown" some months earlier. Linda's note states how she can't handle , "Dad coming for her" anymore, which prompts her to drown herself.

Once Helen reads this note aloud to the assembled family, they finally believe Christian.

There is a great deal of effort put into showing the family dynamics & how this disclosure changes so much of it within 24 hours.


Christian's younger brother Michele, a violent, adulterous man, changes from adoring his older brother, to being hostile towards him, & continues to change as his world view of his Dad is smashed. ***There is a graphic sex scene between Mike & his wife. & Mike also beats up one of the maids.****

Its a powerful movie. Well done. So realistic I had to stop it a couple times.
There is not a single graphic CSA scene. It really isnt needed to get the point across.

A lot happens in this 96 minute film. Far more than I can write here. It was sometimes hard to follow due to the subtitles, & cultural differences. Yet, a lot care was put into the telling of this all to real story.
 
Blacken,

I saw this film some time ago also and found it really moving and real. Tonight I saw it as a play in Londons west end it has been running for some months and has a couple of more months to run. It got excellent reviews and has been playing to full houses, which I find heartening as it must increase understanding of survivors. It is really well acted, for me it was more triggering than the film due to it being theatre and in English. Excellent nonetheless.

Rustam.
 
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