Entertainment · Film · 2 hrs ago
Palme d’Or-winning film Fjord draws on a disputed Norwegian child-welfare case
Fjord draws on a Romanian-Norwegian family’s child-welfare case in Norway and won this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes.
Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve play the Gheorghius, immigrant parents whose strict religious beliefs bring them into conflict with Norwegian authorities.
The story echoes the Bodnariu case, in which Norway took a Romanian-Norwegian couple’s children into care in 2015 after allegations of hitting them and religious indoctrination.
After a seven-month investigation, the children were returned to their parents, who later moved back to Romania.
The case became an international dispute, with Christian groups and conservative politicians alleging that Norway targeted the family because of its faith.
The film refuses to take either side, showing both the authorities as rigid and the parents as severe, while asking how much parents should shape their children’s lives.
Fjord, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is loosely inspired by a disputed Norwegian child-welfare case.
The film draws on the case of Romanian-Norwegian couple Ruth and Marius Bodnariu, whose children were taken into care in Norway in 2015 after allegations they had hit them.
After a seven-month investigation, the children were returned to the family, which later moved back to Romania.
Conservative politicians and Christian groups said the family had been targeted because of its faith, while the film presents tensions between different cultural views of parenting.
Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve play an immigrant couple in the film, which its makers say does not take either side.
- Who
- Filmmaker Cristian Mungiu directed Fjord, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. The film is loosely inspired by Ruth and Marius Bodnariu and their family.
- What
- Fjord draws on a disputed Norwegian child-welfare case and portrays cultural tensions over parenting.
- When
- The Bodnariu children were taken into care in 2015. The film won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
- Where
- The child-welfare case took place in Norway; the family later moved back to Romania.
- Why
- The children were taken into care after allegations that their parents had hit them; the family was also investigated over claims of religious indoctrination.
Norwegian child-welfare authorities
Conservative politicians and Christian groups
Reason for the case
Norwegian child-welfare authorities
The children were taken into care after allegations their parents had hit them, and the family was investigated over claims of religious indoctrination.
Conservative politicians and Christian groups
They claimed the family had been targeted because of its faith.
Parenting and faith
Norwegian child-welfare authorities
Norway is described as having a generally secular relationship to faith and a progressive view of raising children.
Conservative politicians and Christian groups
Critics said Norway’s secular and liberal outlook contributed to the family being targeted.
The Bodnariu children were taken into care in Norway after allegations that their parents had hit them.
The children were returned to their parents.
The family moved back to Romania.
Fjord won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
- Film
- Fjord
- Director
- Cristian Mungiu
- Lead actors
- Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve
- Inspiration
- The case of Ruth and Marius Bodnariu
- Children taken into care
- Norway, 2015
- Investigation
- Seven months
What people are saying
The movie asks you to question things as a parent – am I raising my child for them, or am I raising my child to have them become who I want them to be?
It’s not pro-God, or pro-discipline. It’s much more complicated than that.
People online are already labelling the movie and they haven’t even f***ing seen it. It’s so ridiculous and dumb and sad, like self-cannibalising before the movie’s even got there