LAMB
★★★
OUT 10 DECEMBER / CERT 15 / 107 MINS
DIRECTOR Valdimar Jóhannsson
CAST Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson
“What the fuck is this?” someone utters halfway through Lamb. They’re not wrong to ask. Valdimar Jóhannsson’s slow, absurdist quasi-horror flick sees Icelandic farmers María (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) adopt a child with the head of a lamb discovered in their flock. After a slow, patience-testing start, Lamb develops into an increasingly engaging exploration of natureversus-nurture ideas as Maria and Ingvar raise ‘Ada’ as their own, the happy scene threatened by the arrival of Ingvar’s wayward brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson). In the final third, the film enters enjoyably creepier territory — cue some impressive creature FX — and Rapace’s compelling performance as the new mother striving hard to build an idyllic life makes the absurdity palatable.