Lamb

Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) live on an isolated farm in Iceland. Surrounded by harsh nature, the two are left to their own devices with their sheep farm. Their life is simple and very close to nature. But one night everything changes for the couple when a very special lamb is born. The two are so fascinated by this creature that they take the lamb in as their own child. They give it the name Ada and lose themselves in family happiness. But Ada surrounds a secret that could become a great danger for the foster parents...

Every time I think I've really seen it all, a film like "Lamb" comes along. Director Valdimar Jóhannsson's feature debut is one of those works that makes you constantly wonder how you could come up with such abstruse ideas. The story was inspired by Icelandic folk tales and by Jóhannsson's own experiences as a child on his grandparents' farm. The film is carried by its visually built atmosphere, while the dialogues are kept to a minimum, especially at the beginning. It takes quite a few minutes before a word is spoken at all.

To call the production unwieldy would be an understatement. After it takes time to even get access to the action due to the extreme lack of words, you are then also confronted with a revelation about Maria and Ingvar's "foster child"that you really have to be able to get involved with for the whole thing to even begin to work. And that's really not easy. I would really call myself open-minded when it comes to cinema, but here I really had a lot of trouble taking the story seriously after the reveal.

But even though the film only worked for me to a certain extent, I understand the fascination it has for many others. "Lamb"is a special film, with extremely strong images and a story that mixes folklore, fairy tales, family drama and horror into something that clearly stands out from the mainstream, offering a truly special cinematic experience. The result may be a matter of taste, but the quality of the film is not. Even though I personally didn't go into raptures, for fans of exceptional arthouse horror/mystery I give it a clear: worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp