Lamb (2021 film)

Lamb (Icelandic: Dýrið, "The animal") is a 2021 Icelandic drama film directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Sjón. The film stars Noomi Rapace, and marks Valdimar Jóhannsson's feature-length directorial debut. Rapace and Béla Tarr act as executive producers. After premiering at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, the film was released in Iceland on 24 September 2021. It was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.[5]

Lamb
U.S. theatrical release poster
IcelandicDýrið
Directed byValdimar Jóhannsson
Written by
  • Sjón
  • Valdimar Jóhannsson
Produced by
  • Hrönn Kristinsdóttir
  • Sara Nassim
  • Piodor Gustafsson
  • Erik Rydell
  • Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska
  • Jan Naszewski
  • Zuzanna Hencz
  • Marcin Drabiński
  • Jon Mankell
Starring
CinematographyEli Arenson
Edited byAgnieszka Glinska
Music byÞórarinn Guðnason
Production
companies
  • Go to Sheep
  • Boom Films
  • Black Spark Prods.
  • Madants/NEM Corp
  • Film i Väst
  • Chimney Sweden
  • Chimney Poland
  • Rabbit Hole Prods.
Distributed byA24 (North America)[1]
Release date
  • 13 July 2021 (2021-07-13) (Cannes)
  • 24 September 2021 (2021-09-24) (Iceland)
Running time
106 minutes[2]
Countries
  • Iceland
  • Sweden
  • Poland
LanguageIcelandic
Box office$2.8 million[3][4]

Plot

In Iceland, a herd of horses is spooked by an unknown, loudly-breathing entity that makes its way to a barn. Later, farmer María and her husband Ingvar are shocked to learn that one of their pregnant sheep has given birth to a bizarre human/sheep hybrid.

María and Ingvar grow to love the hybrid lamb as their own child, take it in as their own, and name it Ada after Maria's deceased daughter. Ada's biological mother starts to become a nuisance, attempting to contact Ada constantly and loitering outside the couple's home. Shortly after an incident where Ada goes missing and is later found next to the mother, María shoots Ada's mother and buries her body in a shallow, unmarked grave. Unbeknownst to her, Ingvar's brother Pétur, who arrives at the farmhouse shortly before the killing, witnesses the incident before sleeping in the barn.

Pétur, who constantly makes sexual advances towards María when she's alone, is very disturbed by Ada and maintains the belief that "it's an animal, not a child". Ingvar claims the whole situation has given them happiness. Increasingly angered and disturbed by María and Ingvar's bizarre attachment to Ada, Pétur takes her on an early morning walk while everyone is asleep with the intention of shooting her. After having a tearful change of heart, however, he is later seen soundly sleeping with Ada and soon becomes an uncle-like figure towards her.

One evening, while María, Pétur, and Ingvar are having a drunken party, Ada witnesses the unknown entity from before near the barn. The entity then proceeds to kill the family's dog before taking the family's gun. After the party, a drunk Ingvar goes to bed. Pétur starts to make sexual advances towards María once again. When she rejects his advances, Pétur reveals that he witnessed María killing Ada's mother and tries to blackmail María into having sex with him by threatening to reveal this to Ada.

María pretends to be seduced by Pétur in order to lock him in a closet, then playing the piano to drown out his cries. Having finally had enough of Pétur, María drives him to the bus stop the next morning and sends him home. After waking up to find María and Pétur missing, Ingvar takes Ada to fix the broken tractor, which had broken down earlier when Pétur was driving it. On their way back home, the entity, revealed to be a ram/man hybrid, emerges and shoots Ingvar in the neck, before taking a tearful Ada with it and walking away into the wilderness.

María returns home and finds that Ingvar and Ada are missing. She begins a wide search for the two. She later discovers Ingvar's corpse and grieves in despair for the loss of her husband and new child. The last scene is of María in shock wandering the wilderness, before facing the camera and closing her tear-filled eyes.

Cast

Production

In February 2019, Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason had joined the cast of the film, with Valdimar Jóhannsson directing from a screenplay he wrote alongside Sjón.[6]

Release

In June 2020, the film was sold across Europe in the New Europe Film Sales agency. The film was picked up by distributors in Czech Republic (Artcam), France (The Jokers), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Slovakia (ASFK), Germany (Koch Films), Poland (Gutek Film), Benelux (The Searchers), Hungary (Vertigo), Austria (Filmladen), Denmark (Camera Film), Lithuania (Scanorama), former Yugoslavia (Five Stars/Demiurg), Estonia (Must Käsi) and Latvia (Kino Bize) with MUBI acquiring the distribution rights for Latin America (excluding Mexico), Turkey, India, the UK and Ireland.[7][8][9][10][11] In July 2021, A24 acquired North American distribution rights to the film.[1]

On 4 June 2021, it was announced that the film would premiere as part of the official selection at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.[12] It premiered at Cannes on 13 July 2021. It was released in the United States on 8 October 2021. The film also had a special screening of BFI London Film Festival on 15 October 2021[13]

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Lamb debuted to $1 million from 583 theaters, finishing seventh and marking the best-ever opening weekend for an Icelandic film in the U.S.[14]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 127 reviews, with an average rating of 7.00/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Darkly imaginative and brought to life by a pair of striking central performances, Lamb shears expectations with its singularly wooly chills."[15] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[16]

David Fear of Rolling Stone described the film as "the odd, unsettling, soon-to-be-your-cult-movie-of-choice straight outta Iceland", and wrote: "It’s the sweetest, most touching waking nightmare you’ve ever experienced."[17] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called the film an "atmospheric debut feature", and added that it "plays like a folk tale and thrums like a horror movie." She wrote: "Slow-moving and inarguably nutty, Lamb nevertheless wields its atavistic power with the straightest of faces".[18] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post also described the film as a "haunting, atmospheric feature debut", and wrote: "Johannsson has a way of imbuing everything — animate and inanimate, even an empty doorway — with a kind of living, breathing spirit." He gave the film a score of 3/4 stars.[19] Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Ominous mountains look down upon the pastoral arena where this fantastical yet meditative rural drama plays out; it’s a modern folk tale about the strange realities of life and death that such a closeness to nature affords."[20] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal described the film as "a shaggy lamb story expertly told."[21] Kevin Maher of The Times gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: "The director, Valdimar Johannsson, treats the admittedly ridiculous material with a convincing, deadpan seriousness and is supported at every step by his star performer on impeccable form."[22]

Richard Brody of The New Yorker was more critical of the film, saying that it "preens and strains to be admired even as it reduces its characters to pieces on a game board and its actors to puppets."[23] Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail criticized the film's ending as being "like a parody of an A24 horror movie", and wrote: "I won’t make the obvious joke and say it’s baaad. But its sheep thrills are mutton to write home about, either."[24] Alison Willmore of Vulture wrote: "By the time the final act rolls around, Lamb approaches the idea that there’s a price that must be paid with a shrugging diffidence rather than impending doom. It’s such an underwhelming conclusion to a film with such a compelling start."[25]

See also

References
  1. Barraclough, Leo (July 5, 2021). "A24's Pickup of Cannes Un Certain Regard Film 'Lamb' ConfirmeNew Europe Film Sales Debuts Teaser". Variety. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  2. "Lamb". Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  3. "Lamb (2021)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  4. "Lamb (2021)". The Numbers. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  5. Kjartan Gestsson, Davíð (October 18, 2021). "Kvikmyndin Dýrið verður framlag Íslands til Óskarsverðlauna 2022". RÚV. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  6. Barraclough, Leo (February 8, 2019). "Noomi Rapace Boards Supernatural Drama 'Lamb,' Sold by New Europe (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  7. Mitchell, Wendy. "Buyers feast on Icelandic drama 'Lamb' (Exclusive)". ScreenDaily. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  8. Barraclough, Leo (June 23, 2020). "Noomi Rapace Supernatural Drama 'Lamb' Sells Across Europe (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
  9. Miska, Brad (June 24, 2020). "Gorgeous First Shot of Noomi Rapace in Supernatural Drama 'Lamb' [Cannes]". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
  10. "LAMB – New Europe Film Sales". New Europe Film Sales. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
  11. Ritman, Alex (June 18, 2021). "Noomi Rapace Cannes-Bound Drama 'Lamb' Snared by Mubi in Multi-Territory Deal (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  12. "The films of the Official Selection 2021". June 3, 2021.
  13. "BFI is Special Screening on Lamb (2021) in USA".
  14. D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 10, 2021). "'No Time To Die', Daniel Craig's Final Bond Film, Opens To $56M Domestic Opening – Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  15. "Lamb (2021)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  16. "Lamb (2021) Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  17. Fear, David (October 9, 2021). "'Lamb' Is the Sweetest, Most Touching Horror-Movie Nightmare You've Ever Seen". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  18. Catsoulis, Jeannette (October 7, 2021). "'Lamb' Review: Oh No, Not My Baby!". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 11, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  19. O'Sullivan, Michael. "Review | The movie 'Lamb' is weird, even by A24 standards, but also haunting and beautiful". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  20. Walsh, Katie (October 7, 2021). "Review: Horror haunts the edges of darkly meditative Icelandic folk tale 'Lamb'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  21. Morgenstern, Joe. "'Lamb' Review: Shear Brilliance". WSJ. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  22. Maher, Kevin (December 10, 2021). "Lamb review — original and bizarre fright flick mixes slow-building tension with visual gags". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  23. Brody, Richard (October 8, 2021). ""Lamb," Reviewed: A Horror Film Where Cleverness Is the Problem". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  24. Hertz, Barry (October 5, 2021). "Review: Wild horror film Lamb will do mutton for your parental anxieties". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  25. Willmore, Alison (October 8, 2021). "Lamb Is a Dark Fairy Tale With a Great Concept and Not Much to Say". Vulture. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
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