Mihai Gheorghiu, a Romanian software engineer and devout evangelical Christian, moves to Norway with his family: his Norwegian wife, Lisbet, and their five children.
Their integration into the neighborhood and the school system appears to be going very well; in particular, Mihai’s eldest daughter, Elia, quickly strikes up a friendship with Noora—a rebellious teenager and the daughter of the school principal, Mats. The contrasting parenting styles of the two fathers—Mihai, a conservative *pater familias*, and Mats, a permissive progressive—eventually lead to conflict when teachers notice bruises on Elia. Under Norwegian law, this immediately triggers a report to the powerful Child Welfare Services, which removes the children from Mihai’s custody, suspecting him of child abuse.
Palme d'Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival
"A film that does not alter the form or substance of an unrelenting style of cinema—one that consistently knots itself at a point of friction, from which both narrative and moral tension arise. Mungiu revisits the themes that haunt his work: the conflict between traditional values and aspirations for progress; between faith and the constraints imposed by religion; between conscience and the act of conforming; between idealistic principles and the tangled complexity of reality. He poses questions that defy easy, clear, or immediate answers—unless one chooses to remain trapped in the myopia of preconceived notions and prejudice. These issues coalesce into a discourse on misunderstanding, fear, and the rejection of the 'other.' The setting may change, but the story remains the same—albeit expressed in a different key. In the freezing cold of Norway, conflicts do not erupt into overt rage; yet, they are no less violent for it. They simmer beneath the surface—a layer of profound hypocrisy and indifference, barely masked by the self-righteous rhetoric of inclusivity." (Aldo Spiniello)
