Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve Clash in Cannes ‘Fjord’

Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” brings Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve into a tense culture clash that escalates after Norway’s Child Welfare Service removes all five Gheorghiu children for an investigation.

Under the gray-periwinkle skies of a Norwegian winter, a family’s attempt to start over turns into something far darker.. After Mihai Gheorghiu’s parents die. he moves his brood from the middle of Bucharest to a scenic fjord in Stranda. hoping the new setting—where his wife Lisbet was raised and where her mother is supposedly still around—will offer stability for their five kids.

The move is supposed to be a fresh start. but the Gheorghius’ religiously conservative outlook rubs against the ultra-liberal utopianism around them.. In their new community by the sea. the tension sharpens around everyday life and discipline: their neighbors own televisions and try to be nice about their judgment. while a nearby schoolmaster. Markus Scarth Tønseth. watches with growing skepticism as Mihai applies a strict point system and punishes the older two by refusing to let them attend a birthday party they can hear from their bedroom window.

For all the neighborhood disquiet, the film’s pressure point becomes the state itself.. Noor (Henrikke Lund-Olsen). Mats’ teenage daughter. is portrayed as a troubled soul who steals the family boat every night and slashes her wrists to get a rise out of her friends—yet the Catholics next door are framed as doing things “backwards.” That local moral turbulence sets the stage for a more official reckoning when the Norwegian Child Welfare Service determines that the small bruises a teacher finds on Mihai and Lisbet’s eldest daughter. Elia. are reason enough to take all five of the children into custody while it conducts a thorough investigation.

As the story builds toward a courtroom drama. Cristian Mungiu keeps the imagery more restrained than some of his earlier work. but the uninterrupted scene where government workers come into Lisbet’s home remains a brutal anchor.. They tell her they will be leaving with all of Lisbet’s children—including the new baby who still breastfeeds—and they insist. “We’re here to help. ” adding. “We have to look out for the best interests of the children.” In the moment. it lands less like care and more like a state-funded abduction.

That sequence ties directly into how “Fjord” portrays the family’s unraveling: the same household that begins with Mihai teaching his kids. “You need to learn to apologize when you’re wrong. ” ends with adults—Mihai included—failing to practice what they preach.. As Mihai and Lisbet cooperate with the investigation. the adults’ inability to bridge the divide allows the conflict to thicken. and the children’s testimony becomes the state’s most damning evidence. even as it’s suggested it might be the result of a language-related miscommunication.

The movie also leans into its own complicated moral mirror.. Mungiu prizes ambivalence over ambiguity. and while earlier in his career he may have entertained the possibility that Mihai was “a violent monster at heart. ” “Fjord” aims elsewhere. focusing on a nuclear friction that sits under even the “nicest” culture clash.. It’s even suggested that the Gheorghiu kids’ compliance—contrasted with the portrayal of Mats’ daughter as the town’s closest thing to a certified hellion—can feel convenient for the argument the film is making.

For Mihai, ideology doesn’t stay private.. He is compelled to amplify—and possibly even exaggerate—his hardline beliefs. and the film links that escalation to viral support from conservative protestors across Europe.. Lisbet’s relationship with Mats’ ailing father adds another reversal of the movie’s cultural mores: Lisbet. a caretaker at the local nursing facility. resists the old man’s request to die with dignity.

“You need to learn to apologize when you’re wrong. ” Mihai says early on. but the adults’ silence around what it truly means to be a neighbor becomes a recurring pressure point.. The school’s protective walls stand in the background as avalanches of drama crash down whenever the situation intensifies. while “Fjord” asks. “What does it mean to be a good neighbor?”—and keeps circling back to why it’s so rarely a question people ask of themselves.

Mungiu’s “Fjord” earns a grade of B+. The film premiered in Competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, and NEON will release it in theaters later this year.

Sebastian Stan Renate Reinsve Cristian Mungiu Fjord Cannes 2026 NEON culture clash Norwegian Child Welfare Service courtroom drama film review