Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu ("RMN", "Graduation") is making his English-language debut, titled Fjord. The Cannes favourite filmmaker, a three-time Palme d'Or winner, is set to return to the prestigious film festival with his latest feature headlined by Sebastian Stan ("A Different Man") and Renate Reinsve ("The Worst Person in the World").
According to Deadline, the film follows a Romanian-Norwegian couple who "move to the fjord village where the wife was born with their children. Their planned new life does not go to plan when they come up against a couple who have a very different outlook on life."
Mungiu, who attended the Marrakech Film Festival, revealed that he is currently in the post-production phase. "We shot this year in April and May in Norway, mostly. We are very happy that we happen to have a couple of actors in the film that have had a lovely year, Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve," he confirmed to the outlet, adding, "I couldn't have met them in a better circumstance for their careers, and I liked working with them, and I hope that everybody will enjoy the way they put together this delicate and intimate story."
Interestingly, Stan was cast for this part given his ties to Romania. The Winter Soldier actor was born there and raised there until he turned 8 and moved to Austria, followed by the U.S.
Mungiu, who last directed R.M.N in 2022, won the Palme d'Or for Best Director (for Graduation and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) and Best Screenplay (for Beyond the Hills).
"I started talking to Sebastian some eight years ago about doing a project together, and it's very funny that this project that we've done now, it's his first in Romanian, but my first in English," said Mungiu. "It's half a joke, but it's true. He speaks a little bit of Romanian in the film, but he also speaks a lot of English, and it's mostly a mixture of English and Norwegian with a little spice of Romanian every now and then."
