Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord has won the Palme d’Or for best film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

It is the second time the Romanian director wins the award, after his 2007 win for the abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.

The film stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as a Romanian-Norwegian couple who become embroiled in a dramatic conflict with the Norwegian Child Protection Services.

At the Cannes festival, Fjord was also granted the François Chalais Prize, Prix de la Citoyenneté (Citizenship Award), the Ecumenical Jury Prize, and the FIPRESCI Prize (International Critics' Prize).

Accepting the award, Mungiu described his film as a "commitment against all forms of extremism," with a message of "tolerance, inclusion, and empathy."

"It is important in cinema to speak about relevant things, in order to understand the direction in which the world is heading. We can do it by observing the people around us, our loved ones. And what I feel is that today’s societies are fractured and radicalized. This film is also a commitment against all forms of extremism. It is a message of tolerance, inclusion, and empathy. These are beautiful words that we all love, but we need to apply them more often."

This was the fifth time Mungiu had a film in the official selection of the Cannes festival. In 2007, he won the Palme d’Or for the abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which he wrote and directed. He is the first Romanian filmmaker to win the distinction. In 2012, he won the award for Best Screenplay for the film Beyond the Hills. In 2016, he won the Best Director award for Graduation, a prize he shared with Olivier Assayas, awarded for Personal Shopper. His feature RMN was also selected in the main competition of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

(Photo: Ministerul Culturii on Facebook)

simona@romania-insider.com