Note: I, the author of this article, am the NEON College Ambassador for CU Boulder. I have not been paid to write this review. I’m writing to bring attention to the upcoming screening of this film in Boulder.
Political polarization is an issue which has been prevalent in recent discourse, and NEON’s upcoming film, Fjord, faces it head-on. The film follows a devout Romanian man (Sebastian Stan) and his Norwegian wife (Renate Reinsve) as they move their five children from Romania to a small, remote town in Norway. Once settled, they’re met with unease by the community due to their beliefs — and eventually face abuse allegations that result in their children being taken away by the authorities. The family falls under intense scrutiny and undergoes a trial that interrogates their alleged crimes and beliefs.
The film received a ten-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival premiere, and it won the esteemed Palme d’Or — the prize awarded to the Best Feature Film’s director at the festival. This makes director Christian Mungiu a two time recipient of the award.
Fjord is a fictionalized narrative based on true events. In a recent article for The Hollywood Reporter, Mungiu described how he saw various cases across Nordic countries where families had their children taken away by authorities, and it caught his attention. He followed a particular case with a Romanian family in Norway very closely, reaching out to the family, prosecutors and judge. He stated that he saw “a pattern of conflict between conservative values and progressive values.”
Mungiu asserted that the film’s central conflict isn’t as straightforward as Romanian vs. Norwegian society; rather, he claims, “it’s the conflict between a layer of society which had access to privilege, education and wealth, access that allows people to be more empathetic, and the level of society of people with fewer opportunities which have these conservative views.” He’s stated that he wants to address “the issue of the day” with his films, and he sees political polarization as a major global conflict: “We are divided into groups that became so radicalized that we can’t find common ground.”
Mungiu continued to emphasize the film’s focus on polarization in an interview with Stan and Reinsve for Deadline. He said that extremism comes from radical polarization, where people split against one another and hate each other because they believe that “[they] are right while the others are always manipulated, radicalized, simple-minded, brainwashed.” Reinsve added that the film could take place anywhere because polarization is so rampant worldwide. She questioned, “How do we remain flexible in our beliefs without losing our values? And how do we stay open to the possibility that we might be wrong — without letting that idea destabilize us completely?”
Stan agreed, stating that he researched child welfare services in Norway to examine cases that were positively impactful or prompted questioning of whether children really were being protected. He built upon this, saying that he hopes audiences will see similarities between the film’s conflict and the United States, where “families are being torn apart by institutions that are government-funded with taxpaying dollars.”
In the same Deadline article, Stan also spoke about how the film allowed him to connect with his Romanian heritage. Stan was born in Romania and immigrated to the United States with his mother when he was 12. He discussed how the film gave him a chance to speak Romanian more often than his usual amount just during the holidays, and expressed gratitude for the warm embrace and welcome from the Romanian crew.
As CU Boulder’s NEON college ambassador, I’m incredibly excited to see this film. There will be a free student screening of Fjord on Thursday, Oct. 15th at 7:00 pm at Cinemark Century Boulder. For more information and updates, visit @neonatcuboulder on Instagram.