Fjord Movie Review | Palme d'Or Winner Cannes 2026

Thank you!

Thank you

Anatomy of a Fall and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days are both top 10 all time movies for me, i'm literally dying of excitement

Hundreds, if not thousands of families in Western Europe countries still going through this kind of terror. And, no, there were no bruises.

This film sounds A LOT like 2023 Hindi film Mrs Chatterjee VS Norway - Fjord sounds different in adoption of a storyline & execution too but same same.

Today, the family has grown to 9 members and has permanently moved to Romania. The family has a quiet life today and does not intend to ever return to Norway.

She is Norwegian and lived all her life in Norway, her father worked for Barnavernet. They are a real family . Bodnariu Family

Why do you get to see it in advance?

What parents does everything right? We are all flawed parents.

Hi! Our Romanian media has been rocked 10 ys ago, by the drama of the Bodnariuc Christian family , the film is based on.

Liv childrhen to parent no more giving another industry

Yes is Truth 100 procent the fam suffer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKvKwc7oa6g

This is the true story after the film was made of ; ''According to Statistics Norway, 54, 592 children received care measures from child welfare services in Norway in 2019 alone. That represents nearly 3% of the children in Norway. Nearly 20% of those involved Norwegian-born children to immigrant parents. These statistics represent real families and real-life trauma for everyone involved. Norvegian authorities acted similar to Dark Age Inquisition.




In the fall of 2015, the five children of Ruth and Marius Bodnariu became part of these statistics when they were separated from their parents, their friends and school, and from each other into 3 different households, hours apart from each other. In fact, in many ways, the Bodnarius have become the very symbol of Norway’s staggering child welfare statistics.



This week, five years on from (as for 2020) the horrible events of 2015/2016, which included being separated from their children and being forced to leave family, careers, friends and their home, the European Court of Human Rights has dismissed their challenge after four years of international litigation on the basis that the family had not availed themselves of possible domestic remedies for damages after the family was reunited and fled to Romania.



The decision is a blow to the family, who argued before the European Court of Human Rights that any further remedies in Norway were illusory at best. They would not risk further punishment and separation of the family by going back into the system that had so ill-treated them, especially after all of the international media attention the case had garnered. Asking them to go back into the proverbial lion’s den would have been cruel, and something Ruth and Marius Bodnariu would never put their children through.





The Bodnariu family

On paper, Ruth and Marius Bodnariu did everything right, making the ordeal they suffered all the more shocking.



By all accounts, Ruth and Marius are impressive people. Marius, who is of Romanian heritage, has an Engineering Degree in Applied Informatics with a Master’s Degree in Computer Networks. Ruth is a Pediatric Nurse specialising in Psychology for children and youth. They are educated, loving and responsible parents who, in 2015, had two daughters and three sons, the youngest being just three months old and still breast feeding.



From early in their marriage, Marius and Ruth decided that their “ultimate career” was to be parents and raise a family; to have children and invest in them. In 2005, when Ruth was pregnant with their first child, the couple left Romania to start a new life on a farm in Redal, on the west coast of Norway. Redal and its surrounding villages together consist of 200 families, and collectively form a distinct cultural region of Norway.



Shortly after their first child was born in 2006, Marius began working in Forde’s City Hall. Within one year he was put in charge of the IT department in all ten of the village schools. Following expansion, he became responsible for the entire school district covering 10 communities and 50 schools. In 2007, Ruth commenced employment in the paediatric ward of Forde Central Hospital.



Marius and Ruth raised their children in a loving, active and engaging environment. They involved their children in a wide range of activities including fishing, taking care of animals, woodworking, drawing, painting, and music.



Character and fitness

The Bodnarius were an incredibly tight knit family. Ruth’s parents lived in a neighbouring house and were very much a part of the children’s lives. All of the people interviewed by child welfare officials and the police, including colleagues, neighbours and the extended family had nothing but praise for the family.



Of the 122 medical visits the children collectively underwent from their birth until their being taken into custody, not once was there ever an inference that the children were anything but deeply loved and cared for. Nor did tests following the children’s being taken into care provide any evidence of abuse.



Child welfare services intervene

On 30 September 2015, the headteacher at the school where several of the Bodnariu children attended sent a letter to the Department of Culture which contained the written notes of two conversations had by the school with Ruth and Marius’ daughters. The notes reflected that the girls mentioned receiving occasional spankings at home. This letter was forwarded by the Department of Culture to the Barnevernet (Child Welfare Services) on 8 October. After receiving the letter, the Barnevernet contacted the school headteacher to request a detailed report of the complaint. The headteacher highlighted the family’s strong Christian beliefs and suggested that this may retard the children’s development.



Nevertheless, the headteacher believed Ruth and Marius to be good and loving parents. So much so, that when Child Welfare Services attempted to take the Bodnarius’ two daughters from the school yard, she refused them entry onto the school property and would not identify who the children were.



Guilty until proven innocent

Nonetheless, the children were taken that day without prior notification of the family and questioned without any family member, legal representative or anyone they at least could trust being present on the parent’s behalf. The children, just wanting to go home, gave their interrogators the information they thought they wanted to hear. This pattern continued. During a police interrogation, one of the children even asked in her frustration what else did they want her to make up.



As a result of the interviews, the children, including their youngest who was still being breastfed, were taken from them. Norwegian officials continued to repeat the mantra that the children must be believed, even when much of what was said was contradictory or demonstrably false.



In the investigation notes obtained by the family at trial during discovery, the lead investigator even expresses her own doubts that the children are making up the allegations but then suggests that they must nonetheless be true because a Christian upbringing is inherently violent.



Religious illiteracy and cultural intolerance

The Bodnarius’ casefile is replete with evidence of animus and negative pre-conceptions towards the family. One social worker report goes so far as to describe how Mr Bodnariu was praying at a supervised meeting with his son, and made the exclamation: “After a while he (the father) puts himself on his knees and his body (upper part) over the sofa, he might pray!” The children were also never taken to church once while in foster care. They were forbidden from speaking Romanian with each other, and Marius was required to sign a protocol agreeing not to speak Romanian with the children as a condition of being able to have supervised visits with the family.



Reunification

After seven months of separation, the family was finally reunited following court cases in Norway. For their own safety, and fearing further action by Norwegian officials because of the family’s growing grassroots popularity in Norway and internationally, the family fled their home in Norway to relocate in Romania.



The family, working with international lawyer Paul Susman, who coordinated the legal efforts of the case from its beginnings, contacted the Christian Legal Centre for assistance with proceedings at the European Court of Human Rights. Together, over the course of the last four years, we took up their cause before the highest human rights court in Europe. So strong was the international support for the family that the governments of Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic all intervened in the case on the family’s behalf.



Always faithful

Throughout this entire ordeal the family has remained true to their faith and to each other. Theirs was a case worth fighting. The Bodnarius, in all of their humility, are clear that they took this case forward for the goal of helping other families in Norway going through the same thing.



For my part, I can only say what an honour it was to represent and to get to know this amazing family. My prayer is that this case and all the attention it has attracted, having happened on the grandest legal stage of them all, will finally motivate Norway to take the necessary measures to prevent similar nightmares happening to other families. The time for change is now.''

The movie is based on true events and the husband did not really move his entire family from Romania, the wife was actually Norwegian and they all moved in her childhood village.

Anatomy of a fall shows how stupid and absurd the system can be
Dupa dealuri best Mungiu's film so far
Zvyagintsev best at minimalist dramas of such kind
I imagine Fjord somewhere in the same pool Nothing I haven't seen before

Thank you. Tired of old guys playing Super Heroes and told this is the best.

Haven’t watched the movie yet, but in reality it doesn’t go straight from suspension to removal of a child. They investigate first, and sometimes they conclude from the investigations that no action is necessary.

I would like to watch it

Did you see Coward at Cannes? Valentin Campagne and Emmanuel Macchia shared the Best Actor award for this movie and it has a current 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Thank you for your enlightening review and endorsement of "Fjord," Brian!🙏

today is harder to raise kids because the state. who is supposed to help families is most destructive force of families.

"Barnevernet" in Norway is a very, very Creepy organisation. Some kind of a G*stapo. You have no idea!

Interesting, it did not get a good review from the Guardian who said it should not have taken the prize.

The plot sounds a lot like The Hunt from 2012. If it's as good as The Hunt then that's a great sign.

i was an extra in this movie, can't wait to see it!

Who wants to bet that Fjord will make next year's list of ten nominated films for Oscar Best Picture?

This is not primarily a problem for foreign workers, immigrants, other cultures, this is primarily a problem for all ordinary Norwegian families.
The child welfare service is a state within the state and Norway has been convicted dozens of times in the human rights court in Strasbourg.
The authorities are not giving the children back.
This is all about money a lot of money , corruption, camaraderie and a political party that inserts its people in positions of power.
In this way, the state oppresses the population. I understand why Reinsve is avoiding this "Norwegian family" topic, it wouldn’t be popular among government people.
Many Norwegian families suffer every day.

👏🇷🇴Congratulations to Cristian Mungiu and his crew for the Palme d’Or! Cannot wait to see this in cinema.

Romanian films — especially dramas — are never easy to watch. Stories rooted in characters or events involving people from Romania rarely fit into standard patterns. Romania is a complex country, where multiple cultural layers overlap. A Latin heritage intertwined with Slavic (Russian) influences, followed by the consequences of 50 years of communism and another 35 years of wild capitalism marked by widespread corruption. One must also take into account the impact of the Orthodox Church and the low level of schooling among the rural population and in small towns.

It’s based on a true story. That’s scary

Thank you for this brilliant review, Brian. I've loved all of Mingiu's previous work, but I think in particular "Graduation" is a flat-out masterpiece - one of the greatest films of the past few decades. "R.M.N.," too, is pretty extraordinary. Can't wait to see this when it comes to NY. Loved your description of Reinsve's acting; for my money, she should have won the Oscar for her exhilarating performance in "Sentimental Value." By the way, 100% agree with you about "Drive My Car." But might I suggest you go watch some Virginie Efira movies? Surprised you aren't familiar with her work. She's been in some of my favorite French movies of the past decade; she's been working with some of the most gifted French and Italian directors now working - she's a brilliant actress. Given your critical sensibilities, I'm sure you'd like her. She's right up there with Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, and Leah Sedoux.

Great presentation .... Thank you

Hey Brian, have you also seen the film by Lucas D'Hondt Coward, Best Actor Award for the two lead actors in Cannes

Title edit I see mmmhmm

They won, what is your on the spot reaction?

Cold colors in a pretty photography suspense movie.

Fjord just won the palme d'or 🎉❤

Fjord just won the Palme!

This film just won the Palme d'Or! I'm so excited to see it.

No director makes many movies in Romania, cinema is under financed. I filmed a conference with Cristian Mungiu and Sebastian Stan when he was a special guest at American Independent Film Festival in Bucharest ❤So glad that you enjoyed the movie!