'Fjord' Review: A Quiet Norwegian Village Turns Into a Moral Pressure Cooker

Cristian Mungiu does not make comfortable movies, and ‘Fjord‘ might be his most uncomfortable one yet. The Romanian filmmaker won the Palme d’Or for it at Cannes, his 2nd after ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’, and it marks his English language debut. I went in curious how his patient, cold eyed style would travel to the Norwegian coast.

The story follows the Gheorghius, a devout Romanian Norwegian couple played by Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, who settle with their 5 children in a remote fjord village, Lisbet’s hometown. Things feel hopeful at first, especially as they grow close to their neighbors, the Halbergs. Then their daughter Elia turns up at school with bruises, and the authorities step in, which sets off a legal battle inspired by true events.

Here is where ‘Fjord’ got under my skin. Mungiu refuses to hand you a side to root for, and he lets everyone in the conflict be sincere, flawed and convinced they are protecting someone. I spent long stretches shifting my sympathies, and just when I had settled on a view of one scene, the next scene quietly undid it.

Stan and Reinsve play their roles tightly controlled, almost opaque, and it works more often than not. Stan carries a stubborn, wounded dignity, while Reinsve keeps Lisbet guarded even as her world is dismantled around her. That restraint keeps the film honest, though it also keeps you at arm’s length.

That distance is also the film’s central weakness. At close to 2 and a half hours, the second half settles into a long legal procedure of hearings and meetings with child services, and the tension thins out while the pacing sags. Some of the courtroom silences stretch past unease and into plain stillness.

I also wanted more of the children once they are taken away. The film shifts its attention to the adults and the system, and the kids end up oddly peripheral to a story that is supposedly about them.

Even so, I kept thinking about it long after the credits. It does not tell you what to believe about faith, discipline or the reach of the state, and it asks you to sit in that discomfort instead of rushing to a verdict. That is rare, and I respected it.

The official trailer for Cristian Mungiu’s ‘FJORD’ has been released. Starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. In theaters on October 9. https://t.co/vKmEQxkVVp
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‘Fjord’ is not Mungiu’s most gripping work, and its cool surface will frustrate anyone who wants catharsis. But the moral tangle is rich, the performances are disciplined and the questions it raises stayed with me for days, so I give it 8 out of 10.