Opening in theaters on October 9 is ‘Fjord,’ written and directed by Cristian Mungiu. It stars Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Lisa Carlehed, Henrikke Lund-Olsen, Vanessa Ceban, Jonathan Ciprian Breazu, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Lisa Loven Kongsli, and Markus Tønseth.
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Initial Thoughts
There’s a moment in ‘Fjord’ when Sebastian Stan’s Mihai Gheorghiu, an emotionally distant enigma of a man, stands at the window of his new house in a remote Norwegian village and watches as the last of his five children is taken away from him and his wife. Although we can’t see his face, we see the back of his head and shoulders begin to spasm up and down with sobs – before he brings his fist down on the windowsill in an abrupt, shocking display of rage.
The dichotomy between those two actions is almost a perfect encapsulation of ‘Fjord,’ the powerful, Palme d’Or-winning new film from Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu (‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’). Mungiu explores a clash of cultures, a debate over values, and an argument about personal and religious freedoms through the lens of a single family, whose new life in a Norwegian village is rapidly cast into turmoil by accusations that are actually rooted in truth. Sebastian Stan (‘The Apprentice’) and Renate Reinsve (‘Backrooms’) excel as the couple in this spellbinding drama, inspired by true events, that will leave viewers of all viewpoints uncomfortable.
Story and Direction
Mihai (Stan) and Lisbet (Reinsve) Gheorghiu move with their five children from Mihai’s native Romania to the small, remote Norwegian town where Lisbet grew up, to be closer to her family. Mihai, an aeronautical engineer, takes a job as the IT person at the local school, where four of their children are enrolled; the principal (Markus Tønseth) and his wife, a former attorney named Mia (Lisa Carlehed) are their neighbors. Lisbet works as a nurse.
The Gheorghius seem kind enough, if a bit distant, but willing to get involved with the very progressive community. Yet they are also extremely religious: they’ve joined the local congregation of the evangelical Christian sect to which they belong and the children aren’t allowed to dance, listen to modern music, or stray far from home – the latter an edict which the principal’s daughter Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen), who might have a crush on the Gheorghius’ oldest daughter Elia (Vanessa Ceban), tries her best to get them to disobey.
The school itself doesn’t permit them to sing hymns on the grounds, and the hospital where Lisbet works frowns upon her handing religious material to grieving family members. It’s revealed later that the Gheorghius’ younger daughter condemned a fellow student to hell for expressing that she’s a lesbian. But things escalate when Elia and her sibling Emmanuel (Jonathan Ciprian Breazu) show up to school with bruises – which they offhandedly attribute to their parents.
Their teacher quickly calls Child Protection. Mihai is questioned by the police while Lisbet is confronted by the teacher and the maddeningly polite yet robotic CP rep Gunda (Ellen Dorrit Petersen). Before long, all five children – including the infant that Lisbet is breastfeeding – are removed from the home and placed in separate foster homes. The Gheorghius admit to slapping their kids on the butt for misbehaving or physically admonishing them in other ways, but not beating them violently – yet that’s enough for them to face permanent separation from their kids and even prison. Exasperated with Norwegian law, Mihai reaches out to the Romanian government and his sect – and the case goes global.
Do the Gheorghius beat their children? Is that kind of punishment acceptable in their previous home and within their religion, and if so, should they be on trial for it? If the children love their parents and that love seems to be reciprocated, why should the state interfere with their family? These are the questions that ‘Fjord’ poses, with Mungiu using hand-held cameras, quiet scenes with an undercurrent of dread and tension, and a music-free soundtrack to set up a situation is complex, divisive – and perhaps ultimately unresolvable.
After winning the Palme d’Or earlier this year at Cannes, the film has proven and will continue to prove divisive. That’s because Mungiu doesn’t take a hard stand — although his framing of the beleaguered family against the authoritarian CP officers and a smarmy, aggressive, instantly off-putting prosecutor (Christian Rubeck) makes it possible to surmise whose side he’s on. Yet he leaves just enough of the details of the Gheorghius’ home life ambiguous to provide some room for doubt about whether this family’s values and beliefs are dangerously outmoded. ‘Fjord’ will frustrate viewers looking for answers, but there may be no easy solutions to the questions it raises.
Cast and Performances
Although he will still dutifully return to play Bucky Barnes in this December’s ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ Sebastian Stan has perhaps gone the farthest in terms of his career and abilities since making his MCU debut back in 2011.
Speaking in his native Romanian, the substantial range that has carried Stan through outstanding performances in ‘A Different Man,’ ‘Pam & Tommy,’ and ‘The Apprentice’ is on full display here. His Mihai is a quiet, brooding man who is ‘really hard to get to know,’ as one neighbor says, but who begins to physically bubble with repressed anger and frustration. His stoic nature (partially due to not understanding Norwegian well) adds to the complexity of the performance and story: is he hiding something or is this simply the way he was raised? Almost unrecognizable in bald head, beard, and glasses, Stan (with Mungiu’s help) never truly lets us know who Mihai really is – which is the point.
Renate Reinsve’s Lisbet is also purposely opaque, never raising her voice even when she is told that her children are being taken from her that very day with no warning. Like Mihai, we never know what Lisbet truly thinks, although her love for her children is palpable, adding another enigmatic layer to her persona. She gets her own window moment too: staring out at the fjord with her back to the camera while breastfeeding, she slumps in defeat when she realizes she is no longer producing milk for her youngest. It’s a quietly devastating moment from one of the best actresses of her generation around.
The rest of the cast – mainly Norwegian and Romanian – are uniformly solid, with Lisa Carlehed and Henrikke Lund-Olsen standouts as Mia and Noora respectively, the former bravely stepping up to serve as the Gheorghius’ attorney even if it puts her in direct opposition to the town’s protocols, while the latter is a troublemaker who rattles the Gheorghius’ family dynamic yet is ultimately a loving friend (and perhaps more) to Elia.
Final Thoughts
At one point in ‘Fjord,’ an expert testifies that the Gheorghiu children are not allowed by their parents to have phones, play video games, or watch YouTube – and a parent watching the film may ask themselves, ‘What’s wrong with that?’
The brilliance of ‘Fjord’ is that it leaves one uncomfortable no matter which side of the argument you land on. You may find yourself rooting for people with whom you have profound disagreements. In the polarized climate we’re living in now, that makes this film all too relevant and urgent. The avalanches that occasionally rumble down the mountain behind the town in the film (the school walls are reinforced against them) feel like a metaphor for the constant stream of misinformation, intolerance, accusation, and disruption in which we’re all living – and of which ‘Fjord’ provides a bitter microcosm.
‘Fjord’ receives a score of 90 out of 100.
What is the plot of ‘Fjord’?
A conservative, devoutly religious Romanian-Norwegian couple face scrutiny and an investigation after moving with their children to the wife’s progressive Norwegian hometown.
Who is in the cast of ‘Fjord’?
- Sebastian Stan as Mihai Gheorghiu
- Renate Reinsve as Lisbet Gheorghiu
- Lisa Carlehed as Mia Halberg
- Henrikke Lund-Olsen as Noora Halberg
- Vanessa Ceban as Elia Gheorghiu
- Jonathan Ciprian Breazu as Emmanuel Gheorghiu
- Ellen Dorrit Petersen as Gunda
- Lisa Loven Kongsli as Frida
- Markus Tønseth as Mats Halberg
- Øyvind Venstad Kjeksrud as Åke
- Christian Rubeck as Attorney Jacobsen
List of Sebastian Stan Movies and TV Shows:
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