“This Is Not My Point of View”: Why Fjord Director Cristian Mungiu Refuses to Tell Audiences Who’s Right and Who’s Wrong

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There is a highly provocative theme at the center of Cristian Mungiu's latest film, Fjord, the story of a Romanian immigrant family accused of child abuse after moving to Norway. The movie asks if left-leaning ideology can be taken to the extreme? As seen in the film, the country's desire to protect innocent children ends up putting teachers and social workers in the position of basing their viewpoint on religion and anti-immigrant sentiment.

"If, in general, you're trying to make societal progress, it doesn't mean that at times you might not be exaggerating or be wrong," Mungiu tells The Film Maven. "It doesn't contradict at all the general idea that these people are sharing the progressive ideas for the society, and in principle, this is the right direction. But sometimes the rhythm or the way in which you try to implement these ideas are not good."

The response to the film, particularly from those who have criticized how the movie presents social workers and teachers as the villain, surprises Mungiu. "I would ask why do you think these people have this view on the film," he says. "Why do you think they see it this way?" As a film viewer, Mungiu believes it's imperative for one to "to step out of your pattern of thinking to look at things with a little bit more humbleness and objectivity," though he understands that's often difficult to do. To him, it's worth questioning how the last fifteen or twenty years of progressive policies has led us, particularly viewers in the United States, to where we are today, grappling with an extreme right-wing ideology.