The unexpected arrival in Chapter II of Ingvar’s brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), a failed pop star with a tendency to get into trouble and turn up at the farm battered and broke, threatens to upset the family’s fragile balance. When a stubborn ewe positions herself under the bedroom window of their humble little farmhouse to bleat in protest, Maria deals with the poor creature swiftly and mercilessly. Gudnason injects Ingvar with new warmth and volubility, while Rapace - who is Swedish but spent her childhood in Iceland and gives what’s easily one of her best performances - reshapes Maria’s brittle remove into fiercely protective strength. The couple’s longing for the parenting experience makes them respond to the strange opportunity they’ve been given like people transformed. Whatever she is, she represents their salvation. A female newborn, but what exactly is she? That remains something of a mystery even after Maria and Ingvar begin raising her in the house, bottle-feeding her and tucking her under blankets in a crib. Clearly, they have suffered a pain so tremendous they are unable to speak of it.įollowing the winter thaw, they get through an unusually busy lambing season, and at the end of it, the dog alerts them to something happening in the sheep shed.
This applies not just to the fabulously expressive livestock but to the vigilant sheepdog that patrols the farm and the sphinx-like cat that shares a roof with married couple Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Gudnason).Īt the beginning of the film, Maria and Ingvar go about their daily domestic routines and farm chores with minimal communication and zero joy, hinting at a hole in their lives, the cause of which will be revealed only much later.
#Sheep impact full movie movie
This is a movie in which the sentience and sensitivity of animals to their surroundings, and to intrusions within them, adds constant notes of tension. What appears to be that same creature - based only on the sinister sound of its breathing - then enters the barn of an isolated farm, where the skittish sheep bleat apprehensively until one of them staggers out of its pen and collapses in a heap. The prologue images establish from the outset that this will be an arrestingly cinematic experience, as a feral horse herd slowly materializes in a white-out blizzard, and the animals freak and bolt at the approach of an unseen creature. But Johannsson’s voice is very much his own, attuned to the unique culture of his homeland and the harsh beauty of its landscape, often seen shrouded in mist. Johannsson was a student at Béla Tarr’s Film Factory in Sarajevo, and there are the faintest echoes here of the narrative austerity and the embrace of stillness in the work of the Hungarian master, who serves as an executive producer. The bracingly original film was written by Johannsson with the Icelandic poet, novelist, lyricist and screenwriter who goes by the mononym Sjón, who also co-wrote Eggers’ upcoming Viking revenge thriller, The Northman. Screenwriters: Sjón, Valdimar Johannsson Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard)Ĭast: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Gudnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Ingvar Sigurdsson The two films share certain tonal elements, notably a steadily building dread conjured out of long silences, an eerie loneliness and a bold grasp of the dark mysteries of human-animal relations. The stunningly assured first feature will put the director on the map in ways not dissimilar to Robert Eggers’ The Witch. But nature sees things differently in Valdimar Johannsson’s wild and weird folkloric drama, laced with brooding genre elements that veer into horror and a vigorous jolt of WTF humor. A sheep-farming couple in rugged rural Iceland receive what they interpret to be an unexpected gift from nature to soothe the pain of a lingering loss in Lamb.
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