Behold be-bald Sebastian Stan

Earlier this year, Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut, Fjord, picked up the Palme d’Or at Cannes. It is Mungiu’s second Palme, following his 2007 film, 4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), an absolutely harrowing film about young women and abortion in 1980s Romania. All of Mungiu’s films are emotionally devastating in some way, and Fjord looks no different.

A trailer for the film dropped yesterday, showing off a bald Sebastian Stan playing a Romanian man, Mihai, who moves to Norway with his Norwegian wife, Ruth (Renate Reinsve). This is a reunion for Stan and Reinsve, who previously starred in A Different Man together. It’s also a significant collaboration for Stan and Mungiu, two of Romania’s biggest success stories in film.

The film is inspired by the Bodnariu family, who had their children removed from their custody while living in Norway, where corporal punishment is illegal. The Bodnariu family held Pentecostal Christian beliefs and would sometimes spank their children. Ruth Bodnariu commented that she did not realize the law was enforced so strictly until her children were removed from her home. It was a crazy messy case not least because American Evangelicals got involved, but also because it, among several other similar cases happening around the same time, exposed some problems with Norway’s children’s services agency, Barnevernet.

Just thinking about what Mungiu can do with this story makes my spine itch. Mungiu is drawn to stories about immigrants in Europe, having previously adapted the Ditrău incident as the film R.M.N. In a larger sense, too, his films are grounded in the conflict between personal rights and state laws, especially across increasingly fluid borders in Europe, and how these conflicts lead to and exacerbate xenophobia.

Given that it won the Palme, and that it is a European legal thriller that seems designed to make American audiences go “what the f-ck”, Fjord will likely draw a lot of comparisons to Anatomy of a Fall. But Anatomy had a fun little edge to it, a sense of cheekiness, that propelled it through its Oscar run in 2023-24. Knowing Cristian Mungiu’s work, I am not expecting such cheekiness from Fjord. I’m expecting to want to crawl out my skin before the film is over, Mungiu does not make comfortable films. He makes films that make you question yourself, particularly what you would do in the situation he is presenting. His films are like holding your hand over a candle flame until you can’t stand the heat anymore.

But that doesn’t rule out a potential Oscar run. North American distributor NEON is definitely going to go for it, especially since they converted a Palme to Best Picture with Anora in 2025. It should be noted, though, that only four films in the overlapping history of Cannes and the Oscars, beginning in 1939, have won both the Palme and Best Picture, so though NEON has most recently been successful, it’s still a tall mountain to climb. Still, we’re in for Oscar campaigns for everyone, which means plenty of talk about Sebastian Stan’s bald head. He’s still hot, for the record. Sebastian Stan and Connor Storrie are really repping the short hair boys.