Fjord Details a Family’s Sudden Nightmare in Norway

Reinsve and Stan, top center and right, play the parents of an ultra-religious family caught at the center of a child protection case. —Courtesy of Neon Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu makes thoughtful movies about social issues that cross international borders: In 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days , a young Romanian woman risks her life for an illegal abortion.

R.M.N. explores xeno-phobia in a small Transylvanian village, dissecting the complexity of spontaneous human impulses in the process.

Mungiu’s films can spur us to think anew about issues we’d rather keep in the background, and they can at times be deeply moving.

They can also feel dreary and instructive, in an eat-your-vegetables way.

Mungiu’s Fjord, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes earlier in the year, offers a healthy dose of very nutritious vegetables, and in places the story almost— almost —stretches the bounds of believability.

But its actors, including Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve , as well as two young newcomers, make you believe in one family’s sudden nightmare.

Do the authorities entrusted to protect our children always know what’s best for them? Fjord suggests, provocatively, that the answer may not always be yes.

Mihai Gheorghiu (Stan), who is Romanian, and his Norwegian wife Lisbet (Reinsve) have just relocated with their five children from Romania to Norway, to be closer to Lisbet’s parents.

Mihai and Lisbet are also deeply religious, and appear to be raising their children in a sometimes strict but undeniably loving home.

One day, at the children’s new school, an instructor charged with protecting the students’ welfare notices a bruise on the shoulder of the eldest Gheorghiu daughter, Elia (Vanessa Ceban).

The administrator takes swift action, and before Mihai and Lisbet can fully grasp what’s happening, their children—including their infant, who’s still breastfeeding—are whisked into foster homes.

Their struggle to reunite their family involves risky twists and a great deal of frustrating bureaucracy.

Stan and Reinsve in Fjord —Courtesy of Neon Unless you know Norway’s judicial system, you might be tempted to wonder: Could one family really be broken up that fast, with so little evidence? Mungiu’s premise seems somewhat far-fetched, intensified for dramatic reasons, though it’s worth noting that his script is based on a real-life case in Norway.

And recently, in the U.S., Child Protective Services interviewed the children of former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg , separating the children from their fathers for 24 hours, after receiving a tip alleging that they were at risk.