Lamb, the debut film by Icelandic filmmaker, Valdimar Jóhannsson is a visual tour de force for the eyes as well as the mind.
Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s 2021 Un Certain Regard and rightly so. The Cannes Prize for Originality was never so aptly awarded then it is unto this film.
I am still thinking about the film a day after seeing it. I had vividly messed up dreams about it last night, and am well sure that I will be thinking about it in the days to come.
Before screening this film, I only knew what the trailer told me, which wasn’t much. I knew something strange was going on in the film. Little did I know just how intensely mind scrambling the film would become.
Lamb starts off as any seemingly bleak film from this region usually begins.
It opens on a snowy, windswept hillside and we are following via POV of someone or something trudging forward. We never see who or what it is.
Eventually in the distance we see a light and then cut to a farm and then a flock of sheep within the stables of the farm. The sheep are frightened. Everything is shown through the eyes of whatever the thing is that has come here. Finally, one sheep exits the stable and collapses.
The film then focuses on an Icelandic couple who live and work on this sheep and potato farm. They spend mostly monotonous days tending to the farm. Jóhannsson walks the audience through the couple’s quiet life for the first ten minutes and forty-five seconds into the film, leading up to their assisting in the birth of a lamb.
This is when the first dialogue is spoken in the film.
Lamb relies heavily on the horror tropes of suspense building and uneasiness much like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre does. That mixed with the long methodical shots of the actors doing seemingly mundane things throughout the day weirdly both stresses me out while somehow relaxing me into a false sense of security.
The story really gets going when the couple’s routine of assisting the sheep give birth, something they usually do with an almost bored disinterest, turns into a confused and yet strangely excited event. From here on in all bets are off as to where this film is going. Many things are introduced, a wearily watchful pet cat, a strange visitor, and odd behavior from the farm animals. All these elements and some I refrain from mentioning as not to spoil the film all culminate into the films symbolic and intensely bonkers ending. An ending I did not see coming.
One thing that sticks out in my mind and that I really love is the way plot elements are revealed throughout the film. Things are never said or spelled out for the viewer. You have to watch and deduce what is happening and what has happened in the past to this couple. By the time you do it is usually too late and the consequences are manifest in a most tragic and sometimes bizarre way.
Lamb is such a refreshingly original film in this sea of endless remakes and sequels and superheroes films. A24 continues its stellar streak, for me, in providing mind nourishing as well as visual eye candy content that enthralls me. I can almost always count on this studio to give me something new and engrossing. Vladimir Jóhannsson’s first foray into feature film is a treat and I can not wait for the next offering from this very talented filmmaker.
* * * * *
Produced by Hrönn Kristinsdóttir, Sara Nassim, Piodor Gustafsson,
Erik Rydell, Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, Jan Naszewski
Written by Sjón, Valdimar Jóhannsson
Directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson
Starring Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snaer Gudnason,
Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson
