News: Cristian Mungiu on Fjörd, Family, Sebastian Stan, and the State of the World

The Film Stage

The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Film Stage: I’m really fascinated to hear more about Fjörd, if you’re able to talk a bit about it today. It’s your first time filming in Norway and your first time working with big-name stars. Did you feel a change in your approach in any way?

Cristian Mungiu: Well, I think that it’s the same kind of cinema that I did before. And I don’t know––we will see––I hope it makes a difference in terms of interest from the spectators, to watch these talented people. I was not working within the star system before now, but I was happy to work with these people without having to change my way of making cinema. We got along quite well and I’m happy that I started with Sebastian, because he speaks some Romanian and he wished to speak Romanian in the film. I’m very curious to see what’s going to be the continuation of this once I move on and try to work with well-known actors who don’t speak Romanian. What will happen there? I’m really curious.

[…]

I’ve read that Fjörd will focus on two families, specifically around cultural differences regarding raising children. Will this topic of education be the central focus?

It doesn’t happen inside a school, but yes, these are always the institutions that are most important in society. Since I have this preoccupation with what we are passing to the next generation, there are children there, but it’s not so much about what school tells us; it’s about the difference between what school tells us and how people see what real life is. Because it’s not at all the same thing. What you tell your children can be very different, based on what education you got. You have to understand that they don’t live in the same kind of world that you lived in, so you have to adapt as a parent. For a parent, this means finding the right balance between the values you try to pass down and the freedom that you need to give to children, hoping that they will be wiser and more empathetic than we were.

Fjörd will be released in 2026 by NEON.