Sebastian Stan’s controversial drama Fjord might be a big awards season surprise

Detailed summary

It won the Palme D'Or but will audiences embrace it?

After what many consider a less stellar Cannes Film Festival in May, it was Sebastian Stan’s film Fjord that walked away with the prestigious Palme d’Or.

It initially roused audiences, delivering the first double-digit standing ovation of the festival with a reported 12 minutes of applause – which was then overshadowed by La Bola Negra’s huge 20 minutes.

But it was Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord which triumphed with the top prize, and it was certainly a quieter type of film to win, although Mungiu is a previous multi-award-winner at Cannes.

It felt to me, when I watched it in May, that one of the most hyped films at the festival had finally delivered, despite some critics claiming it shouldn’t have won the prize. And now it finally makes its way to cinemas.

If you were looking for anything boundary-breaking or flashy, that isn’t Fjord at all – and it was refreshing to see the Cannes jury acknowledge that those aren’t the only prerequisites of success and artistic merit.

Rather, it’s a movie of subtle, realistic storytelling centred around two impressively non-showy turns from its stars, Stan and fellow Oscar-nominee Renate Reinsve.

It also really pulls you in on a topic that’s going to cause huge conversation, gently interrogating both sides and focusing on the nuances.

However, it remains to be seen if its early success will see Fjord successfully take on the likes of The Odyssey and the upcoming Dune: Part Three, as well as other festival favourites like Elsinore and Wild Horse Nine when it comes to awards season.

Stan and Reinsve play Mihai and Lisbet Gheorghiu, a Romanian and Norwegian couple and conservative Christians who move with their five children back to their mother’s birthplace, a remote and liberal village in Norway.

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