Review: ‘Rams’ shows varied resilience in the face of conflict (Includes first-hand account)

Being blood relatives doesn’t foster an immediate affinity or adoration of each other. Family feuds can be the most virulent as they tend to run deeper than simple disagreement and are often passed on to or inherited by future generations. However, on occasion, desperate or tragic circumstances can force even the most loathsome to put aside their differences. In Rams, two brothers and neighbours have not spoken in 40 years but a sickness in their community may demand change in more ways than one.

Even though brothers Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson) raise their sheep next door to each other, they do not speak. When necessary, written messages are carried between houses by Kiddi’s dog. They are each other’s polar opposites. Gummi is quiet and well-liked in the village, while his brother is rowdier and somewhat of an alcoholic. Unsurprisingly, when it’s discovered the sheep in the Icelandic valley are infected with scrapie — an incurable degenerative disease — they handle the news very differently. As Gummi quietly complies with official orders to handle the contagion, Kiddi digs his heals in and causes trouble for everyone. However, in the end, this awful turn of events may be the only thing that can bring them back together.

The film provides very little context, launching straight into the story and leaving the audience to work things out as the narrative progresses. Conversations with various characters reveal pieces to the puzzle, gradually giving viewers a better sense of what is happening and the effects this news will have on the protagonists’ very different personalities. The brothers’ relationship is at the heart of the story as they must indirectly or involuntarily interact with each other due to this outbreak. It seems that no matter how much they try to avoid each other, they are constantly drawn back together over this matter. It’s also somewhat amusing when strangers unaware of their separation impose on Gummi to appeal to his brother.

This is a deliberate drama and even though the specific occupation of raising sheep may not be universally accessible, framing it from the perspective of the estranged siblings and a threat to a community’s livelihood makes the story more relatable. Moreover, the actors are incredibly convincing and their uneasy chemistry adjusts accordingly throughout the narrative. While it’s not impossible to predict the direction of the film’s conclusion, it does still manage some unexpected turn of events.

Director: Grímur Hákonarson
Starring: Sigurður Sigurjónsson, Theodór Júlíusson and Charlotte Bøving

Similar Posts

  • Review: TIFF 2018: ‘Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy’ is who they want him to be (Includes first-hand account)

    Freud talked a lot about how people develop their personalities, what they consist of, and how they’re presented to the outside world. Many believe we are a sum of our experiences, while others think we can choose what people see. Identity is an essential part of the human existence, though its truth can often be debated — particularly whether one person can claim to have more than one identity. In Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy, this is taken even further as two women begin to share a third identity.

  • Review: People really should exercise more caution around ‘The Nun’ (Includes first-hand account)

    While the individual movies in The Conjuring franchise have varied in quality, most horror fans can agree that they’ve introduced audiences to some of the creepiest creatures in recent years. Your skin may still crawl when you remember small hands clapping behind Lauren’s haunted mother and plunging her into darkness. Or perhaps Annabelle’s unsettling and unseen movements across the room still gives you goosebumps. The latest spectre to instill fear in the hearts of moviegoers was a ghoulish woman in a habit with demonic eyes. The Nun sets out to answer the question, where did she come from?

  • Review: ‘Appropriate Behavior’ introduces a fresh female voice in cinema (Includes first-hand account)

    While new faces in cinema are a dime a dozen, a combination of freshness and competence is more difficult to find. But Desiree Akhavan’s feature debut is yet another hands-down success from a first-time female writer/director/actor. She follows in the footsteps of Lake Bell in 2013 (In a World…) and Gillian Robespierre in 2014 (Obvious Child) as a woman to watch behind the camera rather than just rising stars in front of it. Appropriate Behavior is an original narrative exploring the pitfalls of being an insecure, partly closeted, bisexual, Iranian woman in New York.