TORONTO — Director Cristian Mungiu knows there are people with strong opinions about his latest film — even though they haven’t seen it yet. In some ways, he says, that proves the point he’s making in “Fjord.” “I think that it confirms a lot what the film is about: people do express firm opinions, even without knowing the content, even before they watch the film,” he said in an interview ahead of the movie’s screening at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. At that point, the number of people who’d seen the film was relatively small. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it won the top prize, the Palme d’Or. It then screened at Telluride in September. Toronto was to be its third stop on the festival circuit before its theatrical release in Canada this Friday. But the film, which stars Sebastian Stan as a devoutly Christian father of five who comes under suspicion when his oldest daughter shows up to school bruised, already had an outsized reaction. Some on social media called “Fjord” a MAGA movie; others said it was “anti-woke.” The Norway-set film asks questions about what religious tolerance looks like in secular communities, while examining the consequences of the country’s child protection system. Mungiu said he wants people to come to their own opinions about the movie. “I think the worst thing you can do is to have firm opinions about things that you haven’t seen yet,” the Romanian filmmaker said. He added that he wants people to go into the film with an open mind, shedding their preconceived notions. For instance, he said, he’s been accused of casting Stan to make his character — a conservative, somewhat standoffish man with traditional ideas about childrearing — more sympathetic to audiences. Mungiu said that’s not the case — people only think that because they have existing positive feelings about Stan. “This is your problem as spectators that you like Sebastian. I mean, from my point of view, you need to listen to the arguments in the film,” he said. Mungiu said even those who have seen the film may not be opening their minds to its message. “In every screening, let’s say that 80, 90 per cent of the spectators come in and get out with the same ideas that they had before,” he said. “And the film will just only confirm their own ideas. But you know there are 10, 15, 20 per cent of people who think about the point of view of the other. And this is where the conversation can start.” He said he wants that conversation to be about more than just the movie. “It can start about something more important, which is what happens in the society today, this conflict between these groups that don’t talk and don’t communicate.” To do that, Stan said, people “might have to put their phones down.” “I think online unfortunately is just a made-up place in a lot of ways, you know, and I think it’s quite dangerous in that regard because you can just live in your own little bubble, which a lot of people do, and never once think for yourself or never once go out and see anything,” he said. “Instead of going to your social media for some sort of opinion, go and actually form one for yourself.” Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press
