Fjord: Cannes Prize-Winner of Parents-Under-Small-Village-Suspicion is a Filmic Rorschach Test
By Karen Gordon
Rating: A
If you walk out of Fjord not quite sure what to think, then you're probably on the right track.
Romanian writer/director Cristian Mungiu's thoughtful, quiet film, which won the Palme d'Or and the FIPRESCI Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is morally and psychologically complex, but deliberately doesn't leave us with easy conclusions.
Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, both terrific, play Mihai and Lisbet Gheorghiu. They’re a deeply religious Evangelical Christian couple who have moved with their five children from his home country in Romania, to hers, a small town in Norway to be closer to her family. Their kids range in age from teenagers to a nursing infant.
Sebastian Stan is a father with resolve in Fjord.
Others in the town, notably the school principal and the teachers, make the appearance of being welcoming, but there’s something slightly forced, and perhaps even condescending, about the way they talk to them
As the family settles in, it’s clear that some of the locals are not comfortable with the family’s conservative religious values. They’re quick to point out to any of the family members when there’s a whiff or a sense that they’re proselytizing.
In the meantime, the kids settle in at school and start to make friends.
The teens, Elia (Vanessa Ceban) and Emmanuel (Jonathan Ciprian Breazu) make friends with their next door neighbour’s daughter Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen). Noora likes to get up to what could be described as mischief—such as it exists in this small coastal town—and seems particularly drawn to Elia. This is noticed by both sets of parents with slight concern.
When Elia shows up at school with bruises, a teacher reports this to Child Services and after a quick investigation, that includes interviews with each of the family members, removes all the children, including the breastfeeding infant. Mihai and Lisbet are, of course, devastated.
Desperate to get their children back, they have to go to court, which is of course, populated by the locals. The circles are small in this town: Their neighbour Mia Halberg (a terrific Lisa Carlehed), who is also Noora’s stepmother, agrees to represent them in their hearing. But it’s just the first hurdle: A criminal investigation into Mihal and Lisbet is opened at the same time.
Mihai, frustrated with the proceedings and believing that religious intolerance is the underlying everything, turns to his religious community. They decide to go public, aiming to create an international pressure campaign to challenge the local court.
Fjord marks the second time the Romanian director has won the prestigious Palme d’Or. He won in 2007 for his film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Fjord is also a subtle film where unpredictable outside circumstances put parents into a place where they must consider taking actions that challenge or cross their own moral or ethical boundaries.
In Fjord, which is based on a true story, Mungiu presents us with an interesting enough courtroom drama. But the film isn't simply about the workings of the justice system in family cases.
He stands back a little and asks us to observe what’s going on, how the various characters interact, whether people are accepting of each other or carry their own preconceptions and attitudes into every interaction.
Is it concern or bias that drives the characters who have taken children away from their parents? And are Mihal and Lisbet guilty as charged, or victims of a series of misunderstandings and unspoken prejudices?
As well, the setting is a small town, which is really a microcosm of society at large. So, the film poses questions about whether people in a community who think they are liberal are really open minded with high ideals, or have succumbed to groupthink.
And further to that, are the people who rang the alarm bells, conscious of their personal motivations, or doubling down on their initial beliefs? What is truth and how do you acheive justice in what could be seen as a closed society?
None of these questions are overt. Mungiu keeps things ambiguous, and as the film goes on, the situation becomes more claustrophobic and unsettling. He doesn’t really want to tell us what to think about any of the characters.
So are we to judge them? The society in this small Fjord village? Or is he inviting us to look at our own reactions?
In an age where truth is harder to discern, and there’s a pressure to think certain ways, Mungiu leaves us with intriguing and urgent questions to contemplate.
Fjord. Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, stars Sebastian Stan, Renata Reinsve, Lisa Carlehed, Vanessa Ceban, Jonathan Ciprian Breazu , Henrikke Lund-Olsen
In Select theatres October 16. Opens wide October 23.