Starry new drama Fjord pits conservatives against liberals - and is set to divide audiences

Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve star as a Christian couple whose parenting is attacked – the film has become one of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival's biggest talking points.

Sebastian Stan is best known for playing Marvel's bionic-armed Winter Soldier, but he isn't afraid of more controversial roles. Most obviously, he was a young Donald Trump in a contentious biopic, The Apprentice, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024. And at this year's Cannes, he's in a drama that is proving to be even more divisive.

Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, a Romanian writer-director who won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2007, Fjord pairs Stan with Renate Reinsve, the Oscar-nominated star of last year's Sentimental Value. They're both at a point in their careers where they could be Hollywood's hottest new romantic-comedy couple, so it's impressive to see them going in a very different direction.

Stan plays Mihai Gheorgiu, a bald, bespectacled and entirely un-Winter-Soldier-ish engineer who, like the actor himself, comes from Romania. Reinsve plays his Norwegian wife, Lisbet. Together with their five children, the couple has just moved from Romania to a village in Norway, with spectacular, snow-capped mountains all around them and the titular fjord on their doorstep.

Mihai helps with the IT at the local international school (the dialogue is in English, Norwegian and Romanian), and Lisbet works as a nurse in a care home. Their eagerness to contribute to the community, they say, is bound up with their intense Christian faith. Daily prayers are mandatory; homosexuality is seen as a grievous sin.

None of this sits well with the school's headteacher, Mats (Markus Honseth), who is also their next-door neighbour, and the father of one of the children's new friends. He prides himself on being welcoming and tolerant, but religious evangelism is a no-no in the school, so when Mihai plays Amazing Grace on the canteen piano, Mats isn't happy.

Then one of the Gheorgiu children comes to school with bruises on her face and back. Before the family knows what is happening, the children are whisked away to live with foster families, the baby included. The situation is every parent's nightmare, but maybe Mihai brought it on himself. As mild-mannered and loving as he is, he does admit to slapping his children's........

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