Norwegian child welfare services (barnevern) once again come under scrutiny in an international film. It is only three years since the Indian “Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway”, based on a true story about an Indian mother fighting against Norwegian child welfare services. The film became a major hit in India.

Now it is the Romanian Cristian Mungiu who has made “Fjord”. He has brought in Renate Reinsve, who after the Oscar for “Affeksjonsverdi” has become an international star.

Norwegian child welfare services are beginning to acquire a reputation abroad that few are aware of. Norway has been found in breach in several judgments in Strasbourg, primarily for failing to take steps to return children to their biological parents. The state “takes” the children. This is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Now a new film is forthcoming on the same theme, and it has been nominated for the main competition for the Palme d’Or in Cannes.

Renate Reinsve may once again set course for Cannes in May. She plays the leading role in the Romanian “Fjord”, which has been selected for the competition for the Palme d’Or.

The film festival revealed on Thursday which films have been selected for the main competition.

Among them is the Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu’s film “Fjord”, shot in Norway and with Andrea Berentsen Ottmar and Dyveke Bjørkly Graver as Norwegian producers.

Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in 2007 for the film “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”.

Renate Reinsve stars alongside Sebastian Stan, who played the young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice”. They play the Norwegian–Romanian couple Mihai and Lisbet, parents of five children, who have just moved from Romania to a village in Western Norway.

Shortly thereafter, the school suspects them of physical punishment of the children. According to Bergens Tidende, Mungiu based his script on several real-life cases, including a child welfare case from Sunnfjord in 2015.

One thousand more than last year
The Cannes Festival showed its hand on Thursday. At that time, festival director Thierry Frémaux announced the films that are so far ready to take part in the main competition when the Cannes Festival takes place from 12 to 23 May.

They have been made both by newcomers and by well-known figures such as Pedro Almodóvar, Ira Sachs and Asghar Farhadi. The forthcoming festival is, according to Variety, dominated by international film and independent filmmakers and few major film studios, where Hollywood was prominent last year.

This year’s films were selected from 2,541 submissions, sent to the festival from 141 countries. This is one thousand more films than ten years ago, which Frémaux believed was because the aim was to show films in a place where they “are seen by the whole world”.

Three Norwegian co-productions
In addition to “Fjord”, a further two Norwegian co-productions have been invited to the Cannes Festival, namely “Elephants in the Fog” by Abinash Bikram Shah from Nepal and “Benimana” by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo from Rwanda, both invited to the side programme Un Certain Regard.

– The selection makes visible the breadth and strength of Norway’s international film cooperation, supported through the Sørfond scheme, says Kjersti Mo, director of the Norwegian Film Institute, in a statement, and says of Renate Reinsve:

– In a few years she has established herself as a central actress in European film. That she is now once again in the main competition in Cannes confirms her strong international position.

Arising in an uncertain time
– The news is anything but reassuring. We gather in a time of great uncertainty, and many wonder what the point is of talking about cinema films, said Cannes president Iris Knobloch in her introduction, according to the festival’s YouTube channel.

She recalled that the Cannes Festival was planned to see the light of day in 1939, at a time when uncertainty also prevailed. But then the world war broke out, there was only one private screening, and the festival was relaunched in 1946.

– It is precisely for this reason that it was founded. To bring together films and artists from all over the world was not a luxury – but a necessity, to defend what humanity does at its best: to dream and to think freely, said Knobloch.

Who also addressed both freedom of expression, the proportion of women in the film industry and the use of artificial intelligence in her introduction:

– At a time when screens are small enough to be held in the hand, we still believe in the unique experience of the cinema. The dark cinema hall is one of the rare places where our differences coexist without dividing us. Where we enter alone, but leave closer to one another.

For the main competition
This year’s opening film in Cannes is Pierre Salvadori’s “The Electric Kiss”, which also competes for the Palme d’Or. Other films ready for the main competition are, according to Variety:

“Minotaur” by Andrej Zvyagintsev, “The Beloved” by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, “The Man I Love” by Ira Sachs, “Fatherland” by Pawel Pawlikowski, “Stories of the Night” by Lea Mysius, “Moulin” by Lazlo Nemes, “Fjord” by Cristian Mungiu, “Notre Salut” by Emmanuel Marre, “Gentle Monster” by Marie Kreutzer, “Nagi Notes” by Koji Fukada, “Hope” by Na Hong-Jin, “Sheep in the Box” by Hirokazu Kore-eda, “Garance” by Jeanne Herry, “The Unknown” by Arthur Harari, “Sudden” by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, “The Dreamed Adventure” by Valeska Grisebach, “Coward” by Lukas Dhont, “La Bola Negra” by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, “Parallel Stories” by Asghar Farhad, “A Woman’s Life” by Charline Bourgeois-Taquet and “Bitter Christmas” by Pedro Almodóvar. (NTB)