On a remote farm in Iceland, a childless couple treats an abnormal newborn sheep as their baby.
Rightfully, the highest-grossing Icelandic film to date, and most definitely not for everyone! Starting as an impressive horror, with the sheep’s synchronised and guided movements stealing the show, the sequence cuts off abruptly, raising a lot of question marks (even though so does the rest of the film). From then on, the mystery takes over when the appearance of the bipedal baby girl-sheep becomes a naturally accepted family member. This is the biggest part of the film, so keep that in mind. Let me rephrase: over a good, solid hour occupies a normality that is anything but normal. In this act, the narrative’s simplicity and the slow editing render Lamb not for everyone. Yet, this is the part where you need to be patient because this normally presented abnormality serves a purpose that will not be directly revealed to you at all. So, as I said, be patient and enjoy, arguably, the best cinematography of the year – Eli Arenson.
Here are a few production details that you might find interesting. As per IMDb, Noomi Rapace had to brush up on the Icelandic language since she spent some years there as a child. What’s more, prior to principal photography, she spent some time on an Icelandic farm, actually learning how to help sheep give birth. Finally, Lamb is the ‘Official submission of Iceland for the “Best International Feature Film” category of the 94th Academy Awards in 2022.
It is an excellent feature debut from director Valdimar Jóhannsson, who makes it really hard for me to provide my interpretation of Lamb without spoiling it for you. I’ll just say that issues such as overcoming sorrow, pursuing happiness, and beating loneliness/solitude in the vastness of an unforgiving nature are Herculean labours individually, much less collectively. Sometimes, we say: ‘If I were in his/her shoes, I would…’ but the undeniable truth is that we never really know what we would have done if we faced someone else’s suffering. So maybe, just maybe, sit in silence for a while and try to understand how other people cope and why they cope the way they do because if God forbid, something similar were to happen to us, the tables would turn. And then people would judge the only way it seems natural for us to cope…
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