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.
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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.
