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RCristian Mungiu, Omani director and winner of the Palme Laureate – winner here in 2007 with his amazing. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days – comes to Cannes with a film of criticism, without power which I think is part of the strange phenomenon at this year’s festival, also visible in the films here of Kantemir Balagov and Ryusuke Hamaguchi: filmmakers who make films outside their place and in the mother tongue with big foreign stars, perhaps because of the intellectual discussions at international festivals.
Fjord is an odd film, with Mungiu’s signature, of course, with surprisingly wide shots and an avoidance of close-ups, and a crowding of faces at dinner. But the vivid pains and sufferings of his story are presented without the beneficial complications we have come to associate with him, and without revelation or mystery. In the end, the film doesn’t offer the searing truth of its various relationships – nor does it withhold such truth from us.
Sebastian Stan plays a young Romanian named Mihai, married to a Norwegian woman named Lisbet (Renate Reinsve); they should come to live in the beautiful, remote village of Lisbet’s birth because Mihai, a software engineer, can get a job in IT and there is a strong church community there which is very attractive because Mihai and Lisbet are regular Christians who are very mature. They are welcomed with open arms by their neighbors (non-Christians), who are the headmaster of the school and his wife.
The film begins at a confusing, incomprehensible moment: Mihai has just meted out some kind of punishment to their daughter who now has to hug her in repentance. School staff noticed that the children had marks and bruises. They are questioned gently but bluntly and (probably) blame their parents for not knowing enough of a language other than Romanian. Perhaps the language issue also makes Mihai report to the police without a lawyer.
With lightning speed, the children are temporarily taken care of while awaiting trial and trial. The situation has become very difficult due to the concern that the elderly father of their neighbors is disabled and that the daughter of Mihai and Lisbet is in a close relationship with their rebellious daughter of their neighbors.
There is something undoubtedly wise in the way that Mungiu invites the audience to sympathize with the children, and on the opposite side of the snow parent – and then next to the old parent against the cruel authorities, the authorities of the rich system.
Liberal prejudice against them as Christians or as Roma against it plays its part. But the truth of the matter does not seem to be in doubt: Mihai admits that he beats or slaps children from time to time – it is well known in the strict Romanian society. But don’t those bruises and scars indicate something worse than that? The issue could not be resolved in court or in the film and then we have a surprising and unmistakable finale on the boat that shows that the relationship of the young girls Elia (Vanessa Ceban) and Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen) is something that the film did not tell us enough or did not tell us. Mungiu’s approach will always be interesting but this is disappointing.
