‘Fjord’ Review: Sebastian Stan And Renate Reinsve In Cristian Mungiu’s Masterful Drama Of Our Polarized Times – Cannes Film Festival

In his typical spare and deliberate style, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu has crafted yet another Palme d’Or-worthy film that fearlessly treads into controversial issues in our society but pointedly doesn’t take sides. This may frustrate people who want it to, but Fjord is a fiercely intelligent and gripping movie that finds its power in providing no easy answers, only questions about what is right and what is wrong. This is a movie that defiantly refuses to ask us to take a stand in a polarized society, but rather consider that nothing is necessarily black and white, only shades of gray.

The Gheorghius family of seven, including new baby, have just moved to a rather remote fjord town in Norway, the country where Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) is from and to which she now returns with her Romanian husband Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and their five kids. They immediately bond with the neighbors including local lawyer Mia (Lisa Carlehed) and her family including daughter Noora (Heinrikke Lund-Olsen), who strikes up an instant rapport with the older daughter Elia (Vanessa Ceban).

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