The film with which Cristian Mungiu won at Cannes divided the artistic world in two: “No other made people argue so much”
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu triumphed on Saturday evening at the Cannes International Film Festival, his new feature film “Fjord” receiving the grand Palm d'Or award. The irony is that a film about polarization and how important it is to listen to the other person has itself been received with extreme polarization. “Fjord” is loved by some critics worldwide and panned by others.
Mungiu's success came in a flash and absolutely deserved, for many critics. They were united even by the controversial subject of “Fjord”, as the BBC showed before the winners were announced.
“Fjor” tells the story of a family of Romanians who emigrated to Norway, who treat their children according to the precepts of an old society, where there are sometimes physical corrections. But Mungiu does not judge these parents.
“It's unusual for the kind of arthouse films that are screened at international film festivals to be so skeptical of their liberal characters and so empathetic to their conservative Christian ones. And this inclination is one of the reasons Fjord has so divided audiences,” says the BBC.
A film that keeps you in your mouth
The British Broadcasting Society said in a synthesis of film critics' reviews at Cannes by Screen International that “Fjord” had a range of four-star reviews (the maximum in this context), as well as one-star reviews, and others in between.
It's “a breathless, anticlimactic film,” said film critic Peter Bradshaw in his review for The Guardian. Or it's a “Palme d'Or worthy film … an intensely intelligent and engaging film,” according to critic Pete Hammond of the American website Deadline.
“Personally, I wouldn't call it Palme d'Or worthy: too many gaps in logic, too many sketchy caricatures instead of well-defined characters. But I must admit I was desperate to find out how the civil case at the end would be resolved,” wrote the BBC in its own review by Nicholas Barber.
Cristian Mungiu's film, with two Oscar-nominated actors in the main roles
The BBC also noted that it will be fascinating to see how the film “Fjord” will be received in Norway, the country where it was filmed, but also in other parts of the world.
“So far, no other film at Cannes has gotten people talking and arguing for so long this year. Is Fjord balanced or biased? Is it reactionary propaganda or a clever satire of progressives? The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that [Sebastian] Stan is becoming one of the most interesting and versatile actors of the moment,” the BBC noted.
Stan, nominated for an Oscar last year thanks to his performance in “The Apprentice”, plays in Cristian Mungiu's new film the role of Mihai Gheorgiu, a bald engineer, who moved to Norway with his wife and their five children. The Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve, nominated for the Oscar this year for her performance in the film “Sentimental Value”, plays Lisbet, Mihai's wife.
“Mihai is in charge of IT at the local international school in Norway, and Lisbet works as a nurse in an old people's home. Their desire to contribute to the community, they say, is linked to their intense Christian faith. Daily prayers are mandatory; homosexuality is regarded as a grave sin,” notes the BBC.
The story that brought Cristian Mungiu the second Palm d'Or award in his career
One of the children of the Gheorgiu family arrives at school with bruises on his face and back. Before the family understands what is happening, the children are taken and placed in foster homes, including the baby.
“The situation is every parent's nightmare, but maybe Mihai (not the Romanian father) brought it on himself. As gentle and loving as he is, he admits that he spanks his children when they don't behave properly. It's a common practice in Romania, he claims, even if it's illegal in Norway,” notes the BBC about the story inspired by the case of the Bodnariu family, and asks more questions:
Is Mihai guilty of more severe physical punishments? Are the authorities right to protect the children from this strict and unyielding patriarchal father? Or am I drawing the wrong conclusions because, in some sense, they do not endorse what he would call traditional Christian values? Moreover, could it be about the fact that they do not look favorably on Romanian immigrants?
“Fjord” brought Cristian Mungiu the second Palm d'Or award in his career, almost two decades after the one he won thanks to directing the film “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”.
