For Mungiu, the film is not the exact mirror of reality, but a laboratory of truth – a space where you can test the limits of identity and empathy. The director points out that when you make art, from a peripheral culture, verticality, rigor and courage to show “what is not seen” become all the more emblematic. This is how Romanian artists are more appreciated abroad than they at home, where they are “tolerated, not respected”. Once again, with “Fjord”, his next feature film filmed in Norway, starring Sebastian Stan, the director escaped “from the Mioritic Paradigm of Deal-velale”.
“The Daily”: How was the experience of returning to Norway to film “Fjord”? How did you furnish the northern space, beyond cold and dark, in the footsteps of Bergman and Strindberg?
Cristian Mungiu: I felt great in Norway and, speaking of identity, I sometimes felt more “home” there than at home. People were fair, parolistic, positive, respectful, involved, but alike with a sense of humor, very communicative, if you knew how to melt the ice of the early politeness. We didn’t do anything special to understand ourselves – but we were ourselves respecting what we were detecting the politeness and habits of the place. But somehow, our directness, warmth and familiarity rushed communication, and at “Fjord” we worked as a team formed, say, from Moldovans, Bucharesters and Norwegians, Danes and so on.
The film cast in Norway means a major decorum change from the urban or rural landscapes in Romania. How did this frame affect the story?
“Fjord” is still a film very close to what I did before, even if it is spoken in another language and is filmed in another country. It’s a also realistic story, also inspired by our daily life, while reflecting on our differences in understanding society and the consequences that relocation to another mental space, when you come with your home ideas. The fact that we escaped from the Mioritic hill-wave paradigm did not majorly influence the structure of the film, because that paradigm is integrated into our DNA is not related to tourist landscapes. But yes, there is an extraordinary greatness of those places – which I hope I have captured in the film – and which speaks of how the landscape, distance, loneliness and population density also influence the worldview.
Sebastian Stan, rhythm and depthHow did Sebastian Stan’s presence influence in the film’s cast? Have you felt major differences in rhythm, working style or approach to the role on the part of it?
– No. We worked very well together, in the style in which we work here, in Europe, in Romania: in the plane-sequence, on a precise text, with a repeated and harsh choreography. Sebastian is a very gifted and subtle actor and gives a lot of strength and naturalness to the character he plays. He had no problem getting into the skin of a character as he can no more different than those he gives life in the series “Marvel”. But yes, from what I talked to him, our working styles (American and Romanian) are as different as it can be – much like the difference between a factory, with assembly line, and a creative boutique.
[…]
When will the film “Fjord” premiere?
We hope that “Fjord” will have its premiere next year, both on the international one and the premiers in the territories. The film is sold from the script phase in more than 60 countries.
Category: Projects
Felipe Gálvez’s “The Settlers” was one of the true finds of Cannes 2023. The neo-western followed three horsemen hired by a wealthy landowner to clear his territory of its native population and open a route to the Atlantic.
Nastily rendered violence collides with Chile’s shameful past—one that seems to have been almost completely erased from the history books. It also cemented Gálvez as a talent to watch, making his sophomore effort highly anticipated.
Gálvez has now set his second feature film; it’s called “Impunity,” a spy thriller set in the late 1990s around the arrest of dictator Augusto Pinochet. Sebastian Stan will star, and since his character speaks Spanish for half the film, he is currently learning the language.
Based on Philippe Sands’ book “38 Londres Street,” the film centers on a former spy tasked with preventing the Chilean dictator’s escape after his arrest in London sparks international tensions. Pinochet was indicted for human rights abuses in Chile by former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón and was detained in 1998 at London Bridge Hospital. He remained under house arrest for 18 months before being released by the U.K. government in 2000.
A 2026 production star is expect for “Impunity.” No further casting details just yet.
Gálvez’s “The Settlers” competed in Un Certain Regard and for the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. The film won the FIPRESCI critics’ award, marking the first Chilean film to receive the prize.
As for Stan, formerly Bucky in the MCU, he’s coming off his Oscar-nominated turn as Donald Trump in “The Apprentice” and has now turned his attention to auteur-driven cinema, with upcoming films from Radu Jude, Cristian Mungiu, and Justin Kurzel.
TIFF – ‘A River’s Gaze’ is set to premiere in 2026.
The update is available on director Andreea Bortun’s profile for TiFF (posted below). Sebastian Stan is attached to the project as a producer.
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.
I’ve added 6 new/old UHQ/untagged photos of Sebastian filming “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” in 2016 in Ireland, click below to view.
I’ve added 4 UHQ/untagged photos of Sebastian from ‘Kings’ that took place in 2009 during filming to the gallery, click below to view.
Surprise! I found a short interview of Sebastian from Berlinale Film Festival last year talking about ‘A Different Man‘. I’ve added screencaps to the gallery and a video of the interview below. Enjoy.
Entertainment Weekly – The “Thunderbolts*” and “Gilmore Girls” stars were in the running for the future CW hit — plus more secrets from casting.
Before there was Paul Wesley’s Stefan on The Vampire Diaries, there was Sebastian Stan.
For I Was Feeling Epic: An Oral History of The Vampire Diaries — a new book out Sep. 9 — author and Entertainment Weekly’s own executive TV editor Samantha Highfill somehow managed to find new intel after years of reporting on the hit CW show. That includes some factoids on the casting process for leads Stefan and Damon.
In an exclusive excerpt from the book, key members of the show’s team reveal that Stan (the future Marvel superstar behind the character of Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier) took a meeting for the role of Stefan, the brooding vampire hottie eventually portrayed by Wesley on The Vampire Diaries.
At the time, Stan was on “that movie with all the hot boys” — the phrase series co-creator Julie Plec uses to describe 2006’s The Covenant, which also starred Steven Strait (The Expanse), Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights), and Toby Hemingway (In Time). Stan also read for the role of Damon, Ian Somerhalder’s future part, while Strait was considered for Stefan too. Stan had to bow out, however, over commitments to Kings, the 2004 King David-inspired NBC drama.
As Highfill reports in her book, another name considered for Stefan included Nathaniel Buzolic (the future “Original” vampire Kol Mikaelson), while Matt Czuchry (Gilmore Girls), Jesse Bradford (Bring It On), and Travis Van Winkle (The Last Ship) were in conversation for Damon.
[…]
GREG ORSON: There was a meeting with a star for Stefan.
LESLI GELLES-RAYMOND: It was Sebastian Stan. He came over to meet, so we got to spend some time chatting with him. It was very cool. We were totally interested in him, and he was discussed at the studio the first time we tested Stefan, but we couldn’t do it because he was tied to another show when this happened, so it didn’t work out. He was tied to Kings.
[…]
LESLI GELLES-RAYMOND: For a while, their dream cast would’ve been Steven Strait [for Stefan] and Sebastian Stan [for Damon], because Sebastian also read for Damon. That was Stefan and Damon for a while. But Sebastian was on Kings, so that wasn’t going to work out.
Surprise! I managed to get my hands on a French Blu-Ray Copy of ‘The Apprentice‘ that featured the full EPK interview for the film. I’ve added screencaps to the gallery and a video of the full almost ten minute EPK interview below. Enjoy.
The Hollywood Reporter – The free-spirited iconoclast also plans to next shoot a movie “about immigration and about Romanians working abroad.”
Romanian auteur Radu Jude (Kontinental ’25, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World) is world premiering his much-anticipated new feature, Dracula, at the Locarno Film Festival on Sunday, but he is already writing a movie about a popular character from another iconic horror novel – Frankenstein. And none other than Marvel Cinematic Universe star Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice, A Different Man, Pam & Tommy, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) is set to star in it.
“I’m writing a film now,” Jude tells THR. “It’s a Frankenstein film in Romania. Frankenstein in Romania, it’s going to be called.”
Stan and the iconoclast previously discussed their interest in a collaboration, but Jude didn’t immediately have an idea. Then he pitched the star, who was born in Romania before moving to the U.S. with his mother, his idea for the Frankenstein film, which Stan liked, according to Jude. The auteur tells THR that he envisions Stan playing “both roles,” that of Victor Frankenstein and his monster.
The story is understood to combine the real-life existence of a secret CIA prison in Romania in the past with the legend of the Frankenstein monster.
Guillermo del Toro’s dark reimagining of Frankenstein, featuring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth, a Netflix production, was recently unveiled as being part of the selection for the Venice Film Festival competition lineup.
Auteur Jude has had a busy 2025. Earlier this year, he world premiered Kontinental ’25, an absurdist comedy-drama about Romania’s housing crisis and the country’s conflicted middle class, at the Berlin Film Festival. It ended up winning the Silver Bear for best screenplay.
Jude world premieres Dracula, his dissection of the Dracula myth that is full of the black comedy for which he has developed a reputation, in the main competition program of the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland later on Sunday afternoon. “This film features scenes that could shock the sensitivity of some viewers,” the fest website notes.
After Locarno, Jude plans to shoot another film. “It’s like a very distant dialogue with The Diary of a Chambermaid, the novel by [Octave] Mirbeau,” the auteur tells THR. “I want to speak about immigration and about Romanians working abroad. It’s about a woman who works for a French family in Bordeaux while her own small daughter remains home. So it’s a film around these dramatic issues.”
That means its tone will be less Dracula-ish. “It’s more comparable to Kontinental ’25 in a certain way; it’s a bit more serious,” Jude explains. “I’m interested in exploring this connection between the Western world and Romania and Eastern Europe through the story of a character.”