All posts tagged: Cristian Mungiu

Cannes Palme d’Or Goes to Renate Reinsve, Sebastian Stan Starrer Fjord

Cannes Palme d’Or Goes to Renate Reinsve, Sebastian Stan Starrer Fjord

Published by Daniella Wilson

Cristian Mungiu‘s Fjord, the Romanian director’s English-language debut starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan as Romanian religious parents who relocate to a small Norwegian village and find themselves accused of child abuse, has won the Palme d’Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. With the win, Mungiu joins Cannes’ elite two-timer club, following his 2007 victory with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, his searing account of illegal abortion in Communist-era Romania. For those keeping score, this marks the seventh year running that Neon has successfully picked the Palme winner. Tom Quinn’s indie outfit snatched up Fjord for domestic release ahead of this year’s festival. At the press conference right after the ceremony, South Korean director Park Chan-wook, head of the 2026 competition jury, joked he didn’t want to give the Palme d’Or to anyone, “because it’s an award that I myself have never gotten.” Then, after a long pause, and referencing his last film, he landed the punch line. “But I had No Other Choice.” Andreï Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, a reworking of Chabrol’s The …

Cristian Mungiu on Fjord with Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve

Cristian Mungiu on Fjord with Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve

Published by Daniella Wilson

Nearly two decades after winning the Palme d’Or with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), an abortion thriller set in Communist-era Romania, Cristian Mungiu is back in Cannes with another challenging, potentially hotly divisive film about the clash between progressive and conservative values and what it means to live in a free society. In Fjord, a Romanian Evangelical family, headed by father Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and mother Lisbet (Renate Reinsve), moves to Norway, only to be confronted by local welfare authorities, who view their traditional child-rearing methods — including occasional corporal punishment — as child abuse. The legal trial that follows becomes as much about their beliefs as about the alleged crimes committed. Fjord is Mungiu’s first film made outside Romania, and his first shot (at least partially) in English, but the film echoes themes — of globalization, cultural conflict and the divide between rich and poor, East and West, traditional and progressive — that define his work. The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Mungiu in Cannes about the real-life inspiration behind the film, working with …

Cannes Palme d’Or Goes to Renate Reinsve, Sebastian Stan Starrer Fjord

Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve in Parenting Hell

Published by Daniella Wilson

Cristian Mungiu’s films invariably deal with social, cultural and moral divisions, uneasy truths, ethical dilemmas and unjust compromises. In his latest, Fjord, the Romanian New Wave auteur brings his needling focus and unvarnished realism to a knotty drama of parenting and education, in which a suspicion of possible child abuse escalates into a full inquisition during a head-spinning rush to judgement. It’s also a nuanced reflection on otherness, and how anyone failing to conform to the values of a community invites distrust. The community in this case are the residents of a picturesque port town on the isolated West coast of Norway, nestled among snow-capped mountains. The locals are all welcoming smiles and warm handshakes when the devoutly religious Gheorghiu family relocates there from Bucarest — including Romanian Mihai (Sebastian Stan) his Norwegian wife Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) and their five children, the oldest of them teenage Elia (Vanessa Ceban). Lisbet was born in the village and the move there was prompted by her mother’s offer to help with the kids. Fjord The Bottom Line Compellingly squirm-inducing, …

The Outsider Who Walked Into Cannes With Three Competition Films

The Outsider Who Walked Into Cannes With Three Competition Films

Published by Daniella Wilson

Marco Perego, a conceptual artist whose work has been displayed around the world, grew up on world cinema and tends to watch a movie every day. Yet the Italian native has operated mostly outside filmmaking circles — until now. Coming off of his feature directorial debut from 2023, The Absence of Eden — which starred his wife, Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña — Perego launched the production company Leaf Entertainment alongside Michael Cerenzie. The goal was simple: Work with the best, most decorated global auteurs and help them get their next projects made. Easier said than done, right? Perhaps, but Perego has hit a remarkable benchmark in a very short period of time. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, he will make history as the first producer to have three movies in the main competition — and they’re among the most pedigreed and anticipated: Minotaur, the first film in nine years from Russia’s Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Loveless); Fjord, the Sebastian Stan-led drama from Romanian master Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days); and Paper Tiger, the starry latest from Croisette regular James Gray toplined by Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller. That …