Director: Cristian Mungiu

Stars: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Lisa Carlehed, Markus Tønseth, Henrikke Lund-Olsen, Vanessa Ceban, Jonathan Ciprian Breazu

The first film made outside his homeland from Christian Mungiu, the estimable director behind outstanding Romanian New Wave pictures ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’ and ‘Graduation’, proves a disappointment. Romanian engineer Mihai Gheorghiu (an initially unrecognizable Stan) and his Norwegian wife Lisbet (Reinsve) have recently moved with their five children to Norway to be near Lisbet’s family. Their next-door neighbours Mats (Tønseth), the local school headmaster, and Mia (Carlehed), a currently non-practicing lawyer, welcome the new family with showy Norwegian inclusiveness. Mats and Mia are aware that Mihai and Libet are staunch Christians but seem unbothered and proudly tolerant, even when they discover that the new arrivals’ two eldest children Elia (Ceban) and Emmanuel (Breazu) have been proselytising to their daughter Noora (Lund-Olsen). Then one of the PE teachers, who also works with Child Services, notices bruises on Elia’s body during a lesson. Authorities swoop on the Gheorghiu household and remove the couple’s children, putting them into foster care, and a hearing ensues. When questioned, Mihai admits he has spanked the children but denies that he has been abusive towards them. After Mihai and Lisbet’s appointed attorney, who was recommended by their church, pulls out, the couple persuade Mia to return to work to help them. A media circus ensues with the pair becoming a poster couple for the libertarian right. While well-acted, the picture feels heavy-handed and uncharacteristically broad with clumsily obvious imagery and a depiction of Norwegian liberalism that borders on the cartoonish, to the extent the film feels like it would have worked better as a black comedy.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Bluesky @davidwilloughby.bsky.social