Noomi Rapace in “Lamb”, a pagan tale in the heart of a soaring Iceland

Icelandic actress, Noomi Rapace (Millennium) chooses his films, and Lamb, on the screens Wednesday, December 29, he is close. Located on its original island, this story evokes local pagan roots. Not the elves, trolls and fairies with which Iceland is identified, but The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen, more esoteric. Superb.

María and Ingvar run a sheepfold, recluse in Iceland. Their last lamb given birth is more than a five-legged sheep, a hybrid anomaly to which they become attached, and which they raise as a child. Happiness will turn into worry, but nature has a big surprise in store for them.

We must not say too much to preserve the surprises of Lamb (Lamb). Writer, Valdimar Jóhannsson, who signs his first film, speaks with the images. It’s so rare, in the midst of (too) chatty or cut-out feature films. Lamb contemplate the landscapes of Iceland, green, misty, windy, and its transparent skies. We smell the air.

Screenwriter and director, the author signs a personal work in a realistic, romantic and profound fantasy. In this, Valdimar Jóhannsson is close to the Thai Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle boonmee, Memoria). The scope format (large) indoors lends itself more than the small screen to the horizontal beauty of the island. María and Ingvar do not get out of nature, they bathe there, hence the strange encounter that will turn their lives upside down and our immersion in the film.

Their offspring does not belong to them. They are the witnesses, but not the father and mother, even if they educate him, with a Shakespearean crime to the key. Mystery. The last images refer to the first, in a wonderful loop. The film won the Originality Award (!) At Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2021. Contemplative, beautiful and sensitive, Lamb transports you to a cold and padded world, marvelous and cruel, in the heart of a contemporary mythological nature.

Gender: Fantasy drama
Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson
Actors: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson
Country : Iceland / Sweden / Poland
Duration : 1h46
Exit : 29 december 2021
Distributer : The Jokers

Warning: scenes, words or images may offend the spectators’ sensitivity

Synopsis: María and Ingvar live in seclusion with their flock of sheep on a farm in Iceland. When they discover a mysterious newborn baby, they decide to keep and raise him as their child. This new perspective brings a lot of happiness to the couple, but nature has one last surprise in store for them …