In an interview with The Verge, Cristian Mungiu discusses his new film Fjord, which follows a Romanian family in Norway and asks whether tolerance has limits. For a business audience, the conversation reveals how the director treats filmmaking as a long-term research project rather than a quick turnaround.
Mungiu says he reads news daily and files articles by theme. It took eight years from reading about a case to deciding to make a film. He then conducted extensive fieldwork: meeting the family, lawyers, social workers, and even witnessing trials. This is a deliberate, costly development process that prioritizes depth over spectacle.
The director also takes what The Verge calls a "risky position" on tolerance, arguing that even minorities with values we don't share deserve tolerance, provided they reject violence. That stance may be commercially risky in a polarized market, but Mungiu insists that imposing views only radicalizes people. For studios and streamers, the implication is that audiences may reward films that engage with moral complexity rather than offering easy answers.