Coldness and bleak does not just describe the weather conditions in rural Iceland where writer-director Grimur Hakonarson’s slice-of-life farming drama Rams (a.k.a. “Hrutar”) takes place. It can also apply to the distant brotherly relationship of the film’s two main protagonists and their lingering four decade-old estrangement. Surprisingly, it would take the critical conditioning of the obstinate siblings’ ailing livestock to bring them together in realizing the foundation of loss and emotional indifference. Thus, Rams secures its impacting quirkiness as an Icelandic fable about the reluctance... read the rest.

Serious and moving but also with a bleaker than bleak Scandinavian sense of humor, "Rams" is so much its own film that figuring out where its unusual, unpredictable plot will end up is difficult if not impossible.

It is more than just raising the livestock to them.

Just a week ago I saw 'Fúsi' which was about an overweight person with the mind of a child. And now another excellent Icelandic movie that centres on the livestock farmers. One of the best movie about the farmers I have seen. It is not all about their farms, but the love and dedication towards their work. About the art of raising animals that passed through the generations who never abandoned their ancestral village to look for a better life somewhere else. But what happens when suddenly a great threat pose to their way of life that they... read the rest.