Skip to content
ROMANIA — Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, which will be released this autumn, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. The film is based on a tabloid topic from 2017: a conservative religious family is accused of child abuse when they move into a progressive community. Critics have commented on Mungiu’s misguided neutrality. The left bubble was appalled by the movie. The conservatives were delighted and felt vindicated, including the Christian outlets. I tend to believe the critics are right, for once — I don’t believe that equidistance is a thing to aim for as an artist, it becomes a deeply insincere trick, « I’m going to wag a finger and say we cannot judge. » Culturally we seem now to be in this moment when woke-bashing, and understanding the conservative view, is this low-hanging fruit. And most people prefer the low-hanging fruit to finding the difficult green walnuts higher up in the tree and making delicious jam from them!
