The film “Fjord,” directed by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu and starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan, won the Palme d’Or today at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. The director previously received his first Palme d’Or in 2007 for his acclaimed drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.”
In “Fjord,” which is inspired by true events, the director sets his story in Norway to confront the contradictions of a society that defends tolerance and openness to others, but can brutally exclude those who deviate from the path laid out for them.
The film tells the story of a Romanian-Norwegian couple, played by Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan, a deeply religious family with five children who settle in a remote Norwegian village at the end of a fjord.
They quickly make friends with their neighbors, but when schoolteachers discover bruises on the body of one of the children, the community immediately associates it with their ultraconservational, religious upbringing, and they lose custody.
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Mungiu stated that he “took a risk” with this film by raising his voice against the dangers we face as a society and saying things that people do not dare to say in public.
“Today’s societies are fragmented and radicalized. This film is a commitment against all forms of fundamentalism; it is a message of tolerance, inclusion, and empathy, words we all cherish but need to apply more often,” he said.
Meanwhile, “Minotaur” by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, which was considered one of the favorites, won the Grand Prix. The film by the Russian filmmaker delivers a hard-hitting portrayal of corruption under the leadership of Vladimir Putin.
Andrey Zvyagintsev, in his acceptance speech, made an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the carnage of the war in Ukraine.
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“Millions of people on both sides of the front line dream of only one thing: that the massacres cease,” said the director, speaking in Russian with an interpreter translating into French. Andrey Zvyagintsev currently lives in exile in France.
Spanish directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, for “La bola negra,” and Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski, for “Fatherland,” jointly won the Best Director award at the festival today.
The film “Fatherland” tells the story of writer Thomas Mann’s return to Germany after his exile in the United States during the Nazi regime.
The German film “Das Geträumte Abenteuer” (The Dreamed Adventure) by Valeska Grisebach won the Jury Prize. The Best Screenplay award was given to Emmanuel Marre for his work on “Notre Salut.” Belgian actress Virginie Efira and Japanese actress Tao Okamoto received the Best Actress award jointly for “Soudain,” directed by Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
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Efira plays the director of a nursing home who seeks to humanize her institution and whose path crosses with a terminally ill Japanese theater director played by Okamoto.
The Best Actor award was shared by Emmanuel Machia and Valentin Campagne for “Coward,” directed by Lukas Dhont, a film depicting a secret passion between two young soldiers amidst the chaos of Belgian battlefields in World War I.
The Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature Film went to “Ben’Imana” by Marie Clementine Dusabejambo. Argentine director Federico Luis won the short film Palme d’Or with “Para los contendientes,” a story about youth boxing in Mexico.
