It's that time of the year. My Crosswalk editor has asked for my Ten Best list of movies from 2006. My picks will be combined with the picks of other Crosswalk editors for an article to be posted later this month, or early in 2007.

Crosswalk is not alone in such efforts. As of this writing, nearly every major critics organization has named its choices for the year's best films. Golden Globe nominations are right around the corner, and then the Academy Award nominations.

Dean Barnett, over at the Townhall-hosted Hugh Hewitt blog, had a related idea recently: He named the Best Film of Year, but not of this year. No, he named the Best Film of 1998. His choice: Director Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight," starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.

Barnett got me thinking about my own choice of Best Movie of the Year for previous years. This is planned as the first of several posts making the case for those films.

First, a disclaimer: I like good films. Sometimes those films are rated "R." Sometimes they're "PG." Sometimes they're "PG-13," and yes, sometimes they're "G." And sometimes they're foreign films.

Keep all of that in mind as you read the title of my choice for Best Film of 1998: "The Celebration."

Never heard of it? That's no surprise. It's Danish. It has subtitles. The film has no familiar actors.

And yet, the film, shot under the strictures of the Dogme 95 movement, has had a tremendous post-release life. Adapted into a play, "The Celebration" has played in multiple countries, including a short run on Broadway.

Why? What is it about the story of "The Celebration" that gives it such universal reach and impact? I submit that the answer lies in the film's very troubling subject: sexual abuse.

I am 36 years old, a "Gen X-er," a product of the generation that reaped what the Baby Boom generation sowed, both good and bad. Among those things was sexual freedom, an acceptance of things that were once considered wrong, and a bringing out into public things that were once considered private.

The net effect has been corrosive. Although I am no social scientist, the skyrocketing reports of sexual abuse among people my own age cannot be explained away merely by an increase in the reporting of such events. Surely there was an increase in sexual abuse of children as we exited the 1960s and were given more license to express our feelings, our urges.

This has been portrayed in the media as liberating, as a move away from the shackles of supposed ignorance and dissatisfaction that pervaded America in the middle of the 20th century. But the tales of molested children tell a different story.

Were "The Celebration" only a grim account of sexual abuse, it would be more of a chore to sit through. Instead, writer/director Thomas Vinterburg brings an energy and an urgency to his story of Christian, a man who gathers with his adult siblings to celebrate the 60th birthday of their father, and to grieve the recent death, by suicide, or Christian's older sister. Christian, however, has something far from celebration in mind for the family gathering. Given the chance to make a toast, he stands and reveals that his father repeatedly molested him as a child.

The uncomfortable partygoers wait a few moments before resuming their conversations, eager to push aside the revelation and get back to their polite affair. But Christian refuses to remain humiliated by their failure to acknowledge his allegations. Aided by the family's kitchen staff, who hide the car keys of all the guests, Christian finds himself with a captive, albeit extremely reluctant audience. And he will not be silenced.

The story, while far from pleasant -- more like harrowing, some would say -- is not only about trauma, but about grace; not only about judgment, but about a certain form of justice. Christian will be attacked those closest to him, tied to a tree, told to stop speaking. But he will return to the party, and he will fight for his good name, and that of his older sister. He will bring about a day or reckoning for both his father and his mother.

It would be presumptuous of me to recommend this film indiscriminately. I'm not doing that. I'm instead pointing out the finest example of filmmaking from one recent year. If you care to rent the DVD, do so with caution, knowing that the film's subject matter is dealt with in a very direct manner. "The Celebration" also features a very rude character, Christian's brother, who treats his wife shabbily and, in one brief but graphic scene, has sex with her. However, watching this violent, abusive man come to grips with Christian's allegations adds a dimension to this impressive, challenging film.

"The Celebration" speaks to a generation of sexually abused kids. It says that there is rest for their troubled souls, and it holds out the promise of peace and reconciliation. Its forgiveness is not all-encompassing however; the family will not be made whole again.

Christ teaches us that no man is beyond forgiveness. That applies to all of the characters in "The Celebration," although the story is more interested in offering grace to those who have been sinned against than it is in offering it to those who have sinned against them. Still, there's a raw power to the film, and to the growing sense that Christian will be -- must be -- heard. His cry is a cry for justice, from someone who speaks the truth fearlessly.

That's something that all Christians should admire.

Comments? Send them to me at crosswalkchristian@earthlink.net.