N°126 Lamb

A few days ago, The Nordic Council gave out their annual prizes and the winner for the film prize was the Icelandic movie Lamb (original title Dýrið). Lamb is directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson, written by himself and Sjón and produced by Hrönn Kristinsdóttir and Sara Nassim.

The film premiered globally in the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021 and since then it has gotten a lot of awards and recognitions. In Cannes it won the Prize of Originality (Un Certain Regard), in the Sitges International Film Festival it won 3 awards, and it has also won prizes in Iceland, USA and in Venice to name a few. Remarkably this is Johannsson’s feature film directorial debut.

The film stars Noomi Rapace (Nordic Art Sunday n°33) and Hilmir Snær Guðnason. It has been described as a minimalist supernatural horror movie, but it also has its funny moments. The plot is about a couple, María and Ingvar, that live on a farm in rural Iceland, grieving the loss of their child. When a baby lamb is born with half-human physiology, a hybrid of a lamb and a human, Maria and Ingvar choose to raise the child on their own, all while refusing to acknowledge that the child, is not their own. It is a unique story of loss, grief, and fear.

As the story takes place in the countryside of Iceland, it features breath-taking visuals with green open fields as well as a foggy harshness of Nordic nature.

Highly recommended! Make sure not to miss it when it comes to a cinema near you.