This is the first film in the "Dogme 95" movement, started by the director of the film Thomas Vinterberg and fellow director Lars von Trier. The directorial movement aimed to reclaim the power of movie-making from big studios, by having a set of restrictive rules films must adhere to. The rules were mainly centered around deliberate lack of technological aid, instead opting to use "traditional" techniques during production*.

Even though it is seemingly low-budget, the handheld-style really adds to the charm of the film. The complete lack of music, unless literally part of the scene, is also noticeable, as per the Dogme 95 rules. Even special lighting is forbidden, as well as non-35mm film or "superficial action" (which is murders, guns etc. according to the directors).

However, the brutally minimalist approach manages to enthrall the viewer almost exclusively to the plot and the character interactions. There is practically nothing else to distract from the plot progression, it's just the actors and the scene, it almost seems theater-like. The narrative is chock full of distinct characters with colorful backstories. Tension throughout the movie is probably the special sauce.

Basically, a wealthy and supposedly successful family has a reunion on the 60th birthday of the patriarch business mogul, where decade-long secrets, differences and issues slowly rise to the surface, with disastrous consequences for all involved.
I will not spoil the twists and turns in this review, as they are both plentiful, unexpected and extremely satisfying.

All in all I suggest anyone that considers themselves remotely a film-buff (lol) see this, since it truly is a pure expression of the essence of cinema, albeit simplistic and unrelentingly stripped-down.

*Below I will be pasting the full Dogma 95 "Manifesto", in its entirety, for anyone curious to read through the cheeky ideological phrasing of the two directors, in the form of a "Vow of Chastity". I noticed it is not in many places online, so archiving it here might also be useful:

" DOGMA 95 – THE MANIFEST

DOGMA 95 is a collection of film directors founded in Copenhagen in spring 1995.

DOGMA 95 has the expressed goal of countering “certain tendencies” in the cinema today.

DOGMA 95 is a rescue action!

In 1960 enough was enough! The movie was dead and called for resurrection. The goal was correct but the means were not! The new wave proved to be a ripple that washed ashore and turned to muck.

Slogans of individualism and freedom created works for a while, but no changes. The wave was up for grabs, like the directors themselves. The wave was never stronger than the men behind it. The anti-bourgeois cinema itself became bourgeois, because the foundations upon which its theories were based was the bourgeois perception of art. The auteur concept was bourgeois romanticism from the very start and thereby… false!

To DOGMA 95 cinema is not individual!

Today a technological storm is raging, the result of which will be the ultimate democratization of the cinema. For the first time, anyone can make movies. But the more accessible the medium becomes, the more important the avant-garde. It is no accident that the phrase “avant-garde” has military connotations. Discipline is the answer… we must put our films into uniform, because the individual film will be decadent by definition!

DOGMA 95 counters the individual film by the principle of presenting an indisputable set of rules known as THE VOW OF CHASTITY.

In 1960 enough was enough! The movie had been cosmeticized to death, they said; yet since then the use of cosmetics has exploded.

The “supreme” task of the decadent film-makers is to fool the audience. Is that what we are so proud of? Is that what the “100 years” have brought us? Illusions via which emotions can be communicated?… By the individual artist’s free choice of trickery?

Predictability (dramaturgy) has become the golden calf around which we dance. Having the characters’ inner lives justify the plot is too complicated, and not “high art”. As never before, the superficial action and the superficial movie are receiving all the praise.

The result is barren. An illusion of pathos and an illusion of love.

To DOGMA 95 the movie is not illusion!

Today a technological storm is raging of which the result is the elevation of cosmetics to God. By using new technology anyone at any time can wash the last grains of truth away in the deadly embrace of sensation. The illusions are everything the movie can hide behind.

DOGMA 95 counters the film of illusion by the presentation of an indisputable set of rules know as THE VOW OF CHASTITY.

THE VOW OF CHASTITY

I swear to submit to the following set of rules drawn up and confirmed by DOGMA 95:

1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.)
3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
4. The film must be in color. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera.)
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10. The director must not be credited.

Furthermore I swear as a director to refrain from personal taste! I am no longer an artist. I swear to refrain from creating a “work”, as I regard the instant as more important than the whole. My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings. I swear to do so by all the means available and at the cost of any good taste and any aesthetic considerations.

Thus I make my VOW OF CHASTITY.

Copenhagen, Monday 13 March 1995

On behalf of DOGMA 95

Lars von Trier Thomas Vinterberg"