FJORD
2h 24m
Romania, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland
2026 | 146 min. | Fiction
The Gheorghius, a devout Romanian Norwegian couple, resettle in a vilage set in a distant fjord where they become close to their neighbours, the Halbergs. Their children bond despite their different education. When adolescent Elia Gheorghiu shows up at school with some bruises on her body, the community asks itself if the traditional education that the Gheorghiu children get from their parents might have anything to do with it.
Directed by: Cristian Mungiu
Written by: Cristian Mungiu
Produced by: Cristian Mungiu, Tudor Reu, Dyveke Bjørkly Graver, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, Katrin Pors, Sean Wheelan, Mimmi Spång, Pascal Chaucheteux
Cinematography: Tudor Vladimir Panduru
Editing: Mircea Olteanu
Production Design: Marius Winje Brustad, Simona Paduretu
Costume Design: Kirsi Gum
Make-Up & Hair: Ingrid Opdahl, Nastasia Mateiu
Original Score: Kaspar Kaae
Sound: Kristian Selin Eidnes Andersen, Pietu Korhonen, Constantin Fleancu
Visual Effects: Filip Kruse
Casting: Hannah Chocron Foldøy
Cast: Sebastian Stan (Mihai), Renate Reinsve (Lisbet), Lisa Carlehed (Mia), Lisa Loven Kongsli (Frida), Ellen Dorrit Petersen (Gunda), Christian Rubeck (Attorney Mr. Jacobsen), Markus Scarth Tønseth (Mats)
Statement of the director:
Our societies have become polarized in the extreme, inciting a kind of radicalization that splits people into opposite rival groups that disregard, despise and often detest one another. We are certain that we are right while the others are always manipulated, radicalized, simple-minded, brainwashed. We have very few to no doubts.
FJORD is a project based on long term documentation of several cases that reached the press referring to the differences of vision about life, education, values between groups with so named progressive orientation and groups with so called ‘traditional’ views.
The story happens in Norway, but it could have happened in whatever other Nordic country. Seen from a distance, the Nordic countries appear to us as the frontrunners of progressive values and therefore the conflict was easier to grasp if set there.
I documented some stories in detail. I talked to all parties involved in several cases but finally FJORD tells a fictional story that describes a few days from an autumn, a winter and a spring of the life of the characters.
There are four languages spoken in the film: Norwegian, English, Swedish and Romanian. Consequently, the crew and the casting are international: Sebastian Stan speaks English, Romanian and Norwegian and so does Renate Reinsve while others speak just their native language and English – the language of globalization that we all use when we haven’t learned foreign languages.
Most of the shooting took place in Norway, on the western coast, from Ålesund to the Stranda Fjord, in the first part of 2025. I can’t be grateful enough for the way Norway received and treated us. He who says Nordic people are ‘cold’ hasn’t lived there long enough.
FJORD is part of my preoccupation with the changes that shook and reshaped the world in times of globalization, migration, democratization of expression, and post-truth visions, that I have explored already in R.M.N. and TRAFFIC. Somehow our personal views have become ever more radicalized, ultimately generating exaggerations in opposite social directions and finally the revival of the extremes in our public lives.
While documenting and making the film, I was trying to explore, to learn, to doubt and to understand. It would be a great flaw for me if FJORD just confirms to you the ideas that you already had before watching it.
Production:
MOBRA FILM
http://www.mobrafilms.ro
World Sales:
Goodfellas