MOVIES: Fjord (2026, Cristian Mungiu)

Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) met in Romania when she was working there as a missionary. They have recently moved with their five children to Lisbet's home village in Norway. When their teenage daughter Elia (Vanessa Ceban) arrives at school with bruises on her face and back, the school refers the matter to Child Services, suspecting abuse. The cause of the bruises turns out to be nothing particularly troubling, but when they are questioned, the parents acknowledge that they have spanked, and occasionally still do spank, their children, and suddenly the investigation isn't merely a civil court matter, but a criminal one. 

An already complicated process becomes more so because the Gheorghiu family are conservative evangelical Christians, and Mihai in particular believes that these investigations are a form of religious persecution. We follow the legal process as the parents fight for the return of their children, who have been removed by Child Services and placed with foster families.

The biggest problem with the movie is that Mungiu is fighting harder to play fair between the two sides than is justified by the facts of his story (which is based loosely on actual events of about a decade ago). Unless you live in a theocracy, religion is not a legitimate defense when you've violated the law, and Mungiu's attempts to present child abuse as a culturally/religiously defensible practice can only fail. The Gheorghius are abusive parents, and their children should be removed from their home; their (and Mungiu's) arguments that this prosecution is a violation of Norway's stated value of respecting diversity is a flimsy bit of both-sides-ism that falls flat.

Still, the cast is strong. Stan is very effective as Mihai, who is constantly seething with anger; and while I don't like the way the government prosecutor has been written -- he's condescending and smug in a way that is meant to increase our sympathy for the parents -- Christian Rubeck's performance is precisely detailed.

But the cast can't overcome the flaws of the storytelling, which is trying extraordinary hard to defend the indefensible.