Palme d’Or winner and Oscar hopeful Fjord is not your typical Hollywood critical darling.
Following a Romanian, deeply Christian family at odds with the Norwegian child-care system — which interprets that family’s form of child-rearing as potentially abusive — it seems the perfect recipe for controversy.
There’s only one problem: No one can figure out who to be mad at.
If you were to ask director Cristian Mungiu, that was the point — to craft a story so even-handed that every audience member would come out thinking he meant to villainize someone else.
And with the response ranging from heralding him as a genius to calling the movie prejudiced and withholding, you could say he was successful. But why make a movie without an obvious point in the first place? CBC News sat down with Mungiu and his star, Sebastian Stan, to understand.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
WATCH | Fjord trailer:
I’m curious whether you think that objectivity in films is possible, and is it something that you aspired for in making this film?
Cristian Mungiu: I think it’s possible to make films, as you see this one, in which you don’t tell the story from your personal point of view as a citizen.
If I had taken sides in the film, the other party wouldn’t have watched the film like this. I use this film as a trigger for a more important conversation — way more important than what happens in the film — about the society of today. That’s the point of the film: Let’s listen to the arguments of the other, even if they won’t convince us. Because if we continue believing that we are the only ones who are right, we are in this dead end, in which half of the population have conservative views, the other half has progressive views, as in the U.S.
Once you make a film and it’s free to be screened anywhere, there are a lot of misinterpretations. You can’t correct every one, but whenever I try to speak, I try to make sure that this is not about Norway and Romania. It’s about what happens to all of us in the world of today.
Sebastian, it wasn’t too long ago the Canadian-produced The Apprentice ended up sweeping the Canadian Screen Awards, but it had a very difficult route to audiences. These roles are both conversation starters, but also fraught and difficult. Was that confluence an intentional choice?
Sebastian Stan: That was a very different film, but I think of equal importance to me. And I think the similarity there, again, is just wanting to work with someone like [The Apprentice director] Ali Abbasi or like Cristian, who I think have a very fearless attitude towards wanting to get to the truth and wanting to do it without judgment. And again, just open the door to conversation.
There is a difficulty to it in a lot of ways, but that is also attractive. And it’s what you want in the long run. Especially now, when everybody just wants to be spoonfed how to feel, what to think and all that stuff. So I felt lucky to sort of have something right away to follow that with, and that was of equal measure.
Speaking about someone to work with — Sebastian, you disappeared into this character, no less for the fact you shaved your head for the role. Cristian, what made you think of Sebastian Stan, the Marvel superhero, for this character?
CM: Well, because I see beyond the Marvel hero. I met Sebastian some 10 years ago and I have also watched the other things that he did in cinema. Yes, he has the ability of also doing the Marvel stuff. That’s great. That’s for a different audience. It doesn’t mean that actors need to be typecast and always labelled as doing only this and this.
And I wanted to take this — after talking to Sebastian — to the edge. To make people see a different character; not only in the way he embodied this very religious person, but also in the way he looked. I’m sorry to say this, but he’s a very good-looking guy [laughs]. I always have this problem with him. And this distracts you from seeing that he can be so possessed by the part. And we came together at the end with this idea that the more distant he looks from his regular self, the more the people are going to see the character.
Yes, it was important for me that the name of Sebastian was there, because without him, we couldn’t have financed this film, to be honest. But at the same time, it’s important not to exploit that he’s so good-looking. I was looking for his talents, and he gave us the opportunity to see what he can do.
Sebastian Stan, left, appears next to Renate Reinsve in a scene from Fjord. (Elevation Pictures)
Of course, Sebastian, I don’t mean to minimize your range. You’ve played difficult roles that are not necessarily villainous, but they’re not altogether perfect people. How do you approach, from a craft perspective, the question of who is in the right?
SS: Well, first of all, I think it’s really about the filmmaker. I mean, it’s a director’s medium. Film to me has always been that way. And I think what’s interesting is when you can meet someone — through their vision and through what they’re exploring — who can make you able to understand something more about yourself.
Life is very complicated. People are complicated. We’re capable of good things and bad things. There’s no black or white. There’s no perfect people, you know? It’s very difficult to find movies and stories now that I think really — and I think they do it more in Europe, to be honest, than in the U.S. — where they’re not afraid to show how complicated situations are.
People are not heroic all the time the way we like to think that they are. People don’t communicate so easily what they feel. They may not have the tools, you know? So I think that’s going to be interesting to get the audience to do a little bit of work, and try to figure out how they feel about the movie.
And you have faith they will?
SS: I do, that’s why we keep making it.
CM: I hope. Who knows. But the idea is that we need to also to tell them that it’s fine to have films in which you get all the answers by the end of the film, and this kind of entertaining film for Friday evening. But cinema shouldn’t just be formatted like this. There’s space for something else, and we hope that this film also appeals a little bit to your critical spirit.
We don’t take you by hand to tell you, ‘This is good. This is bad.’ Because in life, nobody takes you by hand. This is how life is. It’s complex. And cinema should be as complex. So you, as a spectator, need to make this effort of understanding something from the film — and also considering something about your values. Because the film ultimately speaks about you and about your own values that you need to double-check every now and then. To make sure that you think with your own mind.
