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Fjord
Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or winner is a cold, gripping study of how a community decides what counts as harm, held at arm's length by widescreen images of the Norwegian coast. Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve keep it human, and the film refuses to tell you whether the parents are right.
Critics split sharply, and the sceptics have a point: the characters, the child-protection workers especially, are flattened into types, and the ambiguity can read as coyness. Still, two and a half demanding hours that people will argue over in the foyer afterwards.
Dir. Cristian Mungiu · 2026 · 146 min · in cinemas
Cristian Mungiu already had one Palme d'Or, for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in 2007. Fjord won him a second at Cannes in May, and it reaches cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 13 November, after opening in France in August and in the United States in October. Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve lead, it runs two and a half hours, and the critics who have written about it cannot agree whether it is a masterpiece or a near miss. That argument is most of the reason to pay attention.
The setup
Mihai (Stan) is a devout Romanian and an aeronautical engineer; Lisbet (Reinsve) is a Norwegian-born nurse. They move with their five children to a remote coastal town in Norway. At first the family settles in: the neighbours are welcoming, and the teenagers bond quickly with a neighbouring family. Then unease builds around the parents' strict beliefs, and when an adult notices bruises on one of the children, a child-protection inquiry begins. The film is about whether a system can tell genuine concern from prejudice.
That is as far as this review goes. What most critics describe is a drama that stays inside the question of where strict parenting ends and abuse begins, and declines to answer it for you.
What works
The look first. The film is shot in wide, patient frames by cinematographer Tudor Vladimir Panduru, and the camera keeps its distance, so people are seen as small figures inside a larger picture of landscape and community. Even Sight and Sound's Sophie Monks Kaufman, one of the more doubtful critics, admires the widescreen views of the natural landscape and the film's distance from the action.
Then the performances. Luke Hicks at The Film Stage calls Stan and Reinsve terrific as the parents, and RogerEbert.com's Brian Tallerico, as summarised by The Week, says their work keeps the film from turning preachy.
And the tension. Tara Brady in The Irish Times praises its meticulous pacing and a screenplay that avoids easy answers on parenting, faith and state intervention. Hicks says it feels shorter than its running time. Tallerico notes that Mungiu never fully settles his view of the parents, and that this ambiguity is part of the appeal.
Nobody understands mob mentality quite like Cristian Mungiu.Tara Brady, The Irish Times
What doesn't
Kaufman's complaint is the sharpest, and it is about people rather than pictures: "the images take precedence over the creation of multi-dimensional characters." She finds the characters cartoonish and flattened into villains, finds the child-protection workers ghoulish enough to weaken the moral argument, and says the film never makes clear what counts as physical abuse. She also finds Reinsve's performance impassive, which leaves Lisbet a mystery.
Others went further. Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian gave it two stars out of five and was disappointed, while Robbie Collin at The Telegraph gave it five. Monica Castillo at The A.V. Club, again via The Week, thinks it expertly crafted but reads it as scornful of Norway's progressive liberalism. So the split is partly about craft and partly about what the film seems to want you to conclude.
The score
Most reviews are admiring, and the film has the Palme d'Or and Romania's Oscar submission behind it, so the score leans to the admirers. It stops short of five because the doubters are right about one thing: a film this carefully balanced needs characters who feel like more than positions.
Is it for you?
Where to watch
In UK and Irish cinemas from 13 November, according to Time Out and The Movie Waffler's trailer announcement. It has already opened in France (August) and the United States (October). No streaming date has been confirmed in the sources used here, and availability varies by country, so check your local cinema listings.
Sources
- Sight and Sound, Sophie Monks Kaufman
- The Irish Times, Tara Brady
- The Film Stage, Luke Hicks
- RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico, and The Week's roundup of The A.V. Club and others
- Screen Daily, on the Oscar submission and release dates; The Movie Waffler, on the synopsis and UK date
- The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw