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RAMS Send This Review to a Friend
Writer-director Grimur Hákonarson’s drama set in Iceland’s farm country grows increasingly dramatic as the film progresses. Two brothers, Kiddi (Theodor Juliusson) and Gummi (Sigurdur Sigurjonsson), who raise highly-regarded sheep, have not spoken to each other for 40 years. What eventually gives them a reason to cooperate is the driving plot force in “Rams,” photographed compellingly to capture the harsh environmental atmosphere in which these brothers live.
The well-made and absorbing film has particular resonance for me despite my far-removed setting. Growing up in the small New Jersey town of Bound Brook, I observed the rift between my grandfather and his brother, who were long mad at each other and never spoke. My grandfather would stand outside of his gents’ furnishings store on Main Street, and when his brother passed, my grandfather would turn his head, and his brother would look straight ahead so as also to avoid eye contact. I never could find out the source of he antagonism.
I thought of this as I watched the hostility of these Icelandic brothers and chuckled at some of the film's early humor. What finally creates a crisis is a raging illness among the livestock that leads the authorities to order their destruction to avoid the spread of the disease and threatens the livelihood and future of the farmers.
Kiddi is determined to save his sheep, as is Gummi, and they take illegal action in the face of the threat. How this plays out reveals the individuality of the brothers, and the problems between them as they face the intruding authorities.
What began as an amusing look at their rivalry in local competition for awards has escalated into a depiction of a life and death struggle and the need for cooperation. A classic battle engulfs the brothers, and the unfolding makes for a highly unusual film in a setting that we rarely get to see on screen. “Rams,” realistically directed and acted, is one of the strikingly different films to come around early in month-old 2016. A Cohen Media Group release. Reviewed February 3, 2016.
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