TIFF 2026: Christian Mungiu’s “Fjord” is as Glacial as it is Provocative

By: Myles Herod –
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Christian Mungiu’s Fjord opens with the promise of reinvention: Mihai Gheorghiu (Sebastian Stan) and his wife Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) trade their Romanian life for almost mythical Norwegian shores. However, any tranquility they seek is quickly confronted. Turns out their traditional Christian lifestyle, so ordinary in their former country, becomes a source of unease in a school system that prides itself on openness. When a single act of physical correction triggers a chain reaction of institutional alarm, soon the Norwegian state has swept Mihai and Lisbet’s children into temporary custody, including their infant still nursing.

Director Mungiu observes these moments of the film with a patient, almost clinical gaze. He’s fascinated by how a community defines its moral borders, and how polite progressivism can harden when confronted with a different unbending worldview. His camera lingers on small gestures, a weak smile or wary pause, until the film shifts into a courtroom drama where culture and intent collide.

There is no mystery to solve over its 146min runtime. Mihai and Lisbet acknowledge their methods but reject the court’s accusation that discipline equals harm. That disagreement fuels the legal battle, but the film’s deeper tension lies in the unspoken divide between Western and Eastern Europe, and the way migrants carry not only their customs but how they’re interpreted.

By its final moments, Fjord has gathered a stark, icy power. Stan’s subdued performance mirrors the landscape’s grandeur (shot on location), and the Norwegian vistas lend the film a foreboding beauty. Mungiu doesn’t shout his themes, he lets them echo.