Unrecognizable A-Lister Wows With Dramatic Tour-de-Force

Courtesy of TIFF Of all the actors launched into stardom by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sebastian Stan has proven himself the most daring and versatile.

And two years after his extraordinary turns in A Different Man and as a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice (the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination), he reconfirms his A-list bona fides with Fjord .

As a father whose life is torn apart when he and his wife are accused of a heinous crime that’s complicated by their status as outsiders in their new home country, the 44-year-old actor (sporting a bald head, beard, and glasses that render him practically unrecognizable) is a marvel of pent-up fury, frustration, confusion, and fundamentalist belief.

The epicenter of a moral drama that poses prickly questions it astutely refuses to answer, he delivers a tour-de-force in a film that—premiering on September 10 at the Toronto International Film Festival—stands as one of the year’s undisputed highlights.

The second feature by Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu to win the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or (following 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days ), Fjord —inspired by real events—is a story about freedom and its limits.

Romanian-born Mihai Gheorghiu (Stan) and his Norwegian wife Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) relocate their clan to a small Norwegian town that lies beneath a mountain whose avalanches are of little urgent anxiety to a citizenry that’s learned to live with the threat of sudden annihilation.

Mihai and Lisbet are less prepared for out-of-the-blue calamity, so they’re shocked and horrified when, after ensconcing themselves in this community, they’re informed that their children are being taken from them due to suspicion that they’ve been abused.

This is a profound blow to the couple, whose love for their five kids—including eldest daughter Elia (Vanessa Ceban) and son Emmanuel (Jonathan Ciprian Breazu)—is as intense as their devotion to their Christian faith.

Mungiu introduces his characters patiently, with the camera moving alongside and between them as they acclimate to their surroundings.

For Elia and Emmanuel, that involves a budding friendship with rebellious neighbor and classmate Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen), whose father Mats (Markus Tønseth) is the headmaster at their school and the boss of Mihai, who’s taken a job that’s considerably beneath his aeronautics-engineer talents.

Lisbet, meanwhile, works at a local senior center, even as she befriends Mats’ ex-attorney wife, Mia (Lisa Carlehed), whose father-in-law, Ake (Øyvind Venstad Kjeksrud), is in failing health.