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Cristian Mungiu’s sixth feature film, *Fjord*, centers on a Romanian family living in rural Norway who are openly religious and proselytizing. The parents believe in punitive consequences for actions rather than gentle parenting. In 2026, the film depicts Norway as suspicious of devout people, reserving its famous tolerance primarily for secular citizens. Mungiu states that while there are limits to tolerance regarding violence, he believes society should remain tolerant of religious minorities even if they hold different values. He argues that trying to impose rational views on others can radicalize people and that one should advance step by step without making rules for others to change their minds.

Mungiu explains that his ideas for the film came from reading news articles about immigrant families in Nordic countries, which he kept in special folders for years. He decided to make a film based on these ideas only after eight years of reflection, aiming to dig deeper than sensational news to understand what events tell us about the world and our own lives. His research process involved talking to lawyers, translators, the Norwegian child welfare agency, NGOs, and witnesses to trials over ten years. He crafted the screenplay largely by organizing recorded arguments rather than inventing new ones.

The fictional second family in the film serves as a foil to the religious family, representing societal values with which the first family must communicate. Mungiu notes that this balance was important to show how values collide when families are forced to interact. He started working in the press in 1987 at age 19 during communist times when becoming a filmmaker was difficult. He describes his journalistic style as describing external situations without drawing his own point of view, a habit he says still shapes his screenplay writing today.