Thomas Vinterberg 

Denmark
 

They both originate from the same cinema manifesto, DOGMA 95, first signed on 13 March, 1995, by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.

According to their pledge, later joined by colleagues Christian Levring and Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, films should be made on location with no sets, props and lighting, with no genre, no superficial action, no optical work or filters. Essentials are a hand-held camera, real-time sound and music, and Academy 35mm colour.

Although disclosing the fact may risk violating rule No 10, 'The director must not be credited', it can safely be stated that the originator of the first installment in the DOGMA 95 series, Nimbus Film's Festen (The Celebration), screening today, is indeed Thomas Vinterberg. Only 29, Vinterberg has already received an Academy Award nomination, for his graduation work, Sidste omgang (Last Round).

Von Trier and Vinterberg saw their manifesto as a "rescue operation to counter certain tendencies in film today... opposing the auteur concept, make-up, illusions, and dramaturgical predictability... desiring to purge film so that once again the inner lives of the characters justifies the plot," explained Vinterberg.

"In practice, the vow of chastity was only a limitation in a few situations. First and foremost, the rules turned the work into the most enjoyable and the most liberating project I have ever been involved in. Because there was such a clear framework, there was great lightness of feeling within it. We could romp to our hearts' content."
Educated at the Danish Film School, Vinterberg went on to direct his first television drama, Drengen der gik baglaens (The Boy Who Walked Backwards) for pubcaster DR-TV, winning accolades in the Nordic Panorama, Clermont-Ferrand and Toronto. 

Co-written, as were his previous works, with Bohr Hansen, his 1996 feature debut, De storste helte (The Greatest Heroes, also a Nimbus Film production) followed two misfits, a convicted bank robber, Karsten, and his pill-dropping friend, Peter, heading for Sweden and adventure, with Karsten's 12-year-old daughter on the back seat.

The Danish Film School's head of scriptwriting, Mogens Rukov, collaborated with Vinterberg on the screenplay for Festen. It is the story of a summer family reunion on the occasion of the 60th birthday of Helge Klingenfeldt (Henning Moritzen), patriarch and lord of the manor. His wife Elsa (Birthe Neumann), their three grown-up children Christian (Ulrich Thomsen), Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen), and Helene (Paprika Steen) have all turned up for the dinner party – Christian has come home from France, where he runs a restaurant circuit, and Michael has arrived uninvited. He became persona non grata, as he failed to attend his sister, Linda's, funeral. 

Linda – Christian's twin – died the previous year, and Klingenfeldt asks him to say a few words about her, because he is afraid he will himself "start blubbing". Christian agrees, well know-ing that in a couple of hours the world will know the naked truth of his family and the loss of his sister. 

"People who have seen the film have reacted very much the same way – with a deep, deep silence and darkness. They have totally entrenched themselves by the time the credits appear. Then they phone me two days later, still in the throes of the film, and tell me how fantastic they think it is," said Vinterberg. 

"My other films all appealed to an emotion that is closer to the surface, a kind of sentimental feeling that has yielded immediate responses. "

"This one apparently lies deeper down, and it has been very weird for me to encounter such silence at the end of my film. I think I have penetrated a layer of evil and abomination I had never seen before." 
Jorn Rossing Jensen