Tropic Sprockets /  Lamb

By Ian Brockway

This feature debut from Valdimar Jóhannsson “Lamb” is eerie, quirky and pensive. While mainstream audiences might feel the situation absurdist, the film has tension, heart and daring energy. This surrealist film works on the mind slowly and disarms assumptions.

Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingmar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) are a couple who live on and keep a farm. They are surrounded by sheep. One morning near Christmas, the horses are disturbed by jarring percussions in the stable. A pregnant female glares at the other animals with disquieting intent. The farm is held in a state of fear. A storm ensues. The next morning, the two of them deliver twins. 

One of them is half human.

Maria immediately bonds with the hybrid baby. Ingmar is in a state of disbelief. Resentment builds.

The film perfectly captures the strange animal realm and its occult intelligence, despite its offbeat theme. One feels what it might be like to be a sheep, if not a hybrid human. The cinematography by Eli Arensen is excellent. A window in a house obscured by snow is sometimes transformed into a painting by Mark Rothko. Vast space is everywhere and Iceland becomes an alien landscape.

From the first moment of a lamb’s face, betraying a preternatural stare, we are hooked.

While it is startling to see a lamb child sit down at the breakfast table, it is all treated as a matter of course and we somehow, over the space of an hour, begin to see the events as nothing unusual. Strange as it seems, one actually feels this lamb’s vulnerability (her name is Ada) and her “humanness,” the deep soulful eye, the smacking of the lips and her child-like hesitance, coupled with knowing glances at her human mom. The sight of Ada dressed in a sweater and nodding yes is the film’s creepiest moment. Blink your human eyes and you will miss it.

When Ingmar’s crass brother (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) comes to visit, things get even more complicated.

With echoes of “Midsommar” by Ari Aster and “Mother!” by Darren Aronofsky, this is probably the oddest film you will see this year.

As odd as it is, the film raises questions. What is the cause of Ada’s birth? Is it a wish fulfillment or a shared hallucination between Ingmar’s family or a cautionary tale about how we treat animals in our society as property to be used as humans see fit?

“Lamb” will join the select canon of cult-like Surrealist films, joining those that challenged our pre-conceived ideas while seeming silly or ridiculous.

Write Ian at [email protected]

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]