In his typical spare and deliberate style, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu has crafted yet another Palme d’Or-worthy film that fearlessly treads into controversial issues in our society but pointedly doesn’t take sides. This may frustrate people who want it to, but Fjord is a fiercely intelligent and gripping movie that finds its power in providing no easy answers, only questions about what is right and what is wrong. This is a movie that defiantly refuses to ask us to take a stand in a polarized society, but rather consider that nothing is necessarily black and white, only shades of gray.

The Gheorghius family of seven, including new baby, have just moved to a rather remote fjord town in Norway, the country where Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) is from and to which she now returns with her Romanian husband Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and their five kids. They immediately bond with the neighbors including local lawyer Mia (Lisa Carlehed) and her family including daughter Noora (Heinrikke Lund-Olsen), who strikes up an instant rapport with the older daughter Elia (Vanessa Ceban).

The Gheorghius clan also happen to hold deeply conservative religious beliefs and lifestyles, and have come to this community with their strong ties to the Bible and a strict set of rules including keeping their kids away from the likes of video games, YouTube, iPhones and other delights of today’s youth. They surround themselves with like-minded citizens in the fjord, but things go badly for them fairly quickly when Elia turns up at school with noticeable bruises and the school’s child protection team start an investigation into Mihai and Lisbet that quickly escalates with the removal of their kids to foster homes until it can be determined if child abuse has been taking place.

The suspicions and actions by child protection, prosecutors and others about the parents also seem to be influenced and center on their conservative way of life and bringing up their children. Beyond the investigation, legal action may also be on the table, especially since Mihai in his deposition admits to “slapping” the kids, a practice still very much in vogue in his home country if not Norway, which has liberal laws regarding appropriate use of force against children.

The clash of this family’s conservative values versus the progressive values of the new place they have made their home in is the essence of Mungiu’s screenplay, and is meticulously played out in such a way that you may find yourself alternately on both sides of the thorny issues brought up here. Does government have the right to just take away your kids because they don’t agree with the way you are raising them? Do parents have the right to discipline the way they see fit? Mungiu isn’t asking us to take a side either way, but to simply consider there may be other answers in a world that increasingly is divided between left and right and nothing tolerated in between.

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Lisbet, devastated by all this happening around her, engages a lawyer who plays by the rules and quits in frustration. She then convinces Mia, her friend and neighbor, to take on the case. Mihai is less patient with the process and rallies his community to visibly protest among other tactics. Ultimately, the judge must decide whether this is a family that can be brought back together or torn apart permanently. The answers don’t come easily.

Both Stan and Reinsve are excellent here, never going for melodrama but keeping it real as their world comes crashing down around them. The supporting cast across the board is authentic to the core, with Carlehed’s sympathetic friend and lawyer especially fine. Special shout-out to cinematographer Vladimir Banduru, who beautifully captures the natural beauty of this picaresque location.

Fjord represents the first venture into a foreign language for Mungiu including English and Norwegian, and he pulls it off nicely. Winner of the 2007 Palme d’Or for 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, which similarly showed he was not afraid to dive into divisive subject matter (in that case, abortion), the director this time is simply asking us to try listening to each other rather than putting our heads in the sand.

Point taken.

Title: Fjord
Festival: Cannes (Competition)
Director-screenwriter: Cristian Mungiu
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Lisa Carlehed, Vanessa Ceban, Heinrikke Lund-Olsen
Sales agent: Goodfellows
Running time: 2 hr 26 mins