We’ve been devoted fans of Cristian Mungiu ever since discovering his work through the Romanian New Wave’s crowning achievement, 2017’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (read review). His feature debut Occident was a Directors’ Fortnight selection in 2002. A specialist in themes of tragedy, moral corruption and social tensions, he co-directed 2009’s Tales from the Golden Age (an Un Certain Regard selection) and he returned to the Cannes competition with 2012 Best Screenplay Award winner Beyond the Hills (read review), Graduation (2016) and 2022’s R.M.N. (read review). Here is Everything We Know So Far … about Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord.
Mungiu premiered his fifth feature R.M.N. at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, and after that he took on the writer and producer hate for Teodora Mihai’s Traffic (aka Reostat) in 2024. So less than three years in between films he directed, he moved to Norway for his first project in the English language.
It was A Different Man reunion of sorts for Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve – the pair had worked together back in 2022 on the Aaron Schimberg micro-indie.
This follows the Gheorghiu family — Romanian father (Stan), Norwegian mother (Reinsve) — as they settle into new life in a remote Norwegian village, the mother’s birthplace. They quickly bond with the Halbergs, who live in the neighboring house near the bay, and, despite their very different upbringings, the children of both families soon become close friends. When the Gheorghius are suspected of disturbing behavior, their lives are thrown into chaos as they become the center of small-town scrutiny.
Producing with Mobra Films’ Tudor Reu, Mungiu re-teams with cinematographer Tudor Vladimir Panduru (The President’s Cake, Hesitation Wound and Metronom) – they’ve worked together Graduation (2016). He works with Mircea Olteanu since Beyond the Hill (2012) and this is a first collab with Production Designer Marius Winje Brustad (worked for Trier’s Sentimental Value).
Production took place this past March so this will have more than a year for him to prep the film for what will be a shoe-in Cannes competition entry (it would count as his fifth time in competition) and Neon picked up the rights to the project during this year’s Cannes.
