Director Cristian Mungiu speaks, in an interview given to the British publication The Guardian, about his new film, Fjord, about the clash between conservative and liberal values, as well as about the danger of state abuses. The filmmaker, awarded this year with his second Palme d’Or, believes that films should challenge viewers to think, not just confirm their own beliefs.
The discussion with journalist Philip Oltermann begins with an event from 2013, when Mungiu was part of a delegation of European filmmakers who met in Brussels with José Manuel Barroso, then president of the European Commission.
The directors feared that the liberalization of trade between the EU and the USA would affect national cinemas, favoring international co-productions lacking identity. Barroso did not share their concern, being dissatisfied that Europeans continued to prefer films from their own countries.
Mungiu says that European integration is a good direction, but cultural differences cannot disappear overnight.
The irony is that his new film, Fjord, is precisely such an international co-production, filmed in Norway, edited in Romania, and with sound done in Finland and Denmark. It is also his first film in English, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve in the lead roles.
A film about two worlds that do not understand each other
Fjord follows the story of a Romanian-Norwegian family with five children who move from Bucharest to Norway. The parents are evangelical Christians with conservative values, but are initially welcomed openly by the local community.
The situation changes when a teacher notices bruises on the body of the eldest daughter. Child protection authorities intervene, and the father, although denying that he abused his children, argues that a slap can sometimes be a necessary punishment.
The children end up being separated from the parents, including a newborn, and the case provokes a diplomatic conflict.
However, Mungiu does not offer the viewers a verdict. The film does not clarify how the bruises appeared, leaving the audience to judge both the parents’ behavior and the authorities’ intervention.
The director criticizes the recent trend in cinema of constructing stories where good and evil are clearly delineated, and the viewer is told what to believe.
“We see too many stories that only confirm that we are on the right side,” says Mungiu.
Accusations of conservatism and the lesson of communism
The film, awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2026, provoked mixed reactions. In Romania, some critics considered it too lenient towards corporal punishment of children. In France, a review accused Mungiu of favoring one side, although he claims to present them evenly.
The Guardian journalist notes that the film can also be interpreted as a critique of excessive state intervention in private life. However, the film also presents the father’s authoritarianism, including in his relationship with his teenage daughter, who develops feelings for a female classmate.
“I come from a very authoritarian society and I have seen that it is not good to give people too much power, because there is a natural tendency to abuse it,” explains Mungiu.
Mungiu also ironically talks about having many admirers in France who are communists. He says he would have liked them to live in Romania in the ’70s to see what communism really meant. “Not to mention the ’50s!” adds the director.
However, the director rejects the conservative label. Presenting certain arguments without explicitly condemning them does not mean he supports conservative values or the intolerance associated with them.
Why has the world become less liberal?
Mungiu says he has higher expectations precisely from liberal societies, such as the Norwegian one. He believes these should be the first to try to dialogue with people who have different beliefs, and dialogue requires patience and willingness to listen.
The Guardian journalist confronts him, however, with a situation from the film: one of the teenage girls is told that her sexuality will send her to Hell. How much patience should a girl put up with in such a situation?
“I am aware that things are more complicated in reality,” admits Mungiu, but raises another question: how did it happen that, after so many years in which societies have tried to become more liberal, the world is now less liberal?
The director wonders if some changes were forced too much and too quickly. “It’s like trying to ripen a banana with a hairdryer. It doesn’t work like that. People need time,” says Mungiu.
In Norway, Fjord received some of the most favorable reactions, says Mungiu. Not even the child protection authority, Barnevernet, would have considered the film a critique of Norwegian society.
At its release, the film reached first place in the Norwegian box office, surpassing The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s new production.
G.P.