Fjord

The Norwegian-Romanian immigrant couple and their five children are warmly welcomed into the small village. However, when a teacher discovers a bruise on the 13-year-old daughter’s back, it sets off a chain reaction. The children say they've been smacked on the bottom. The authorities are called in and take them – including the baby – away from their parents. The couple are put on trial, and everything is held against them: their Christian faith, their traditional thinking, their different background. Director Cristian Mungiu makes judges of the audience as well. Is it acceptable for children to have no access to mobile phones or the internet? For the family to pray several times a day, to talk about Satan, to reject homosexuality? Against the backdrop of the fjord’s overwhelming beauty, the Romanian director demonstrates how a society erects walls that it actually wants to overcome.