Fjord (2026)

“Is Fjord guilty, as some have charged, of stacking the moral decks in the Gheorghius’ favor? We are presented with a few potentially hissable villains… Yet Mungiu has an uncommon ability to temper bluntness with nuance…If there’s one thing the Romanian writer and director Cristian Mungiu nails in his knotty and engrossing new film, Fjord, it’s how the evangelical impulse manifests itself in public—and how swiftly, even reflexively, it can be shut down.” — Justin Chang, The New Yorker

SYNOPSIS

Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Fjord marks Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu’s triumphant return to the festival’s highest honor, nearly two decades after his landmark 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve star as Mihai and Lisbet, a devout Christian couple who relocate with their five children from Romania to a small Norwegian coastal community, hoping to build a more prosperous future. But their new life unravels when allegations of physical abuse prompt child welfare authorities to remove their children from their custody, igniting a bitter conflict over parental rights, religious conviction, and the boundaries of state intervention. Working in his characteristically austere style, Mungiu employs meticulously composed widescreen images, extended takes, and an accumulating sense of unease to expose the prejudices and contradictions lurking beneath competing claims of moral righteousness. Refusing easy distinctions between victims and perpetrators, Fjord probes the collision between religious traditionalism and secular liberalism while questioning how readily institutions and individuals mistake ideological certainty for ethical clarity. A morally intricate, politically combustible drama from one of contemporary cinema’s most incisive filmmakers.