Nearly two decades after winning the Palme d’Or with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), an abortion thriller set in Communist-era Romania, Cristian Mungiu is back in Cannes with another challenging, potentially hotly divisive film about the clash between progressive and conservative values and what it means to live in a free society.
In Fjord, a Romanian Evangelical family, headed by father Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and mother Lisbet (Renate Reinsve), moves to Norway, only to be confronted by local welfare authorities, who view their traditional child-rearing methods — including occasional corporal punishment — as child abuse. The legal trial that follows becomes as much about their beliefs as about the alleged crimes committed.
Fjord is Mungiu’s first film made outside Romania, and his first shot (at least partially) in English, but the film echoes themes — of globalization, cultural conflict and the divide between rich and poor, East and West, traditional and progressive — that define his work.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Mungiu in Cannes about the real-life inspiration behind the film, working with Stan, and why he believes cinema should provoke debate rather than confirm ideological certainty.
