The 2021 Icelandic Film and directorial debut of Valdimar Jóhannsson. It has already achieved a great deal of attention, being selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94^th Academy Awards.

There is so much to love about this film! I was lucky enough to see it in the cinema and I strongly recommend anyone else do the same!
For one the extraordinary performances of Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson. Their performances are incredibly subtle but just as effective as they are subtle. The characters seem incredibly real, with the film often feeling more like you’re just watching a family exist than watching a film.
Secondly are Many creative decisions in this film served the purpose of more strongly realising our characters, whether in the decision to have the family watch television together, falling asleep to records or Ingvar quietly crying to himself while going about his day, touched by the arrival of his new child.
Thirdly is the beautiful cinematography! Every shot in this film looks like a painting! I firmly believe that nobody needed to design a poster for this film when any given frame would have sufficed!

However, despite there being so much to talk about, I mostly want to focus on how well the film kept me guessing throughout, not just on the main mystery of its plot, but also on the underlying themes and lessons the audience was supposed to take from it.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! PLEASE WATCH THE FILM BEFORE CONTINUING!

How Lamb keeps you guessing in regards to its own mysteries.

Lamb is a film that keeps an audience captivated with its visuals and story, however,  the same audience is not rewarded with answers to the films mysteries until the very end.
The opening sequence is one of mystery, a point of view shot to the sound of heavy, demonic breathing, followed by a shot of a sheep that looks far from well!
This is the only real sign of a supernatural element the audience are given for a long time, even the birth of a child with a sheep’s head is treated not with horror or even shock, but as the most normal thing in the world, neither of the married couple who run the farm seem to question it.
It is all too easy for the viewer to forget the previous threat, or even the abnormality of the situation as the plot revolves around the drama of the new family, who have taken on their role as parents seemingly more willingly and with more enthusiasm than most people would take on the role of parents to not mutant children.

Lamb is not without plot, the plot just isn’t what one might expect, focusing on the difficulties of Ada’s biological mother who won’t let go of her child and the arrival of Petur, the frequently antagonistic brother of Ingvar. There is long after most of the film’s drama has already unfolded, some more heavy breathing shots and a scene of a scared Ada and a dog that goes missing, as well as some hints that Ada is not as comfortable in the household as she previously has been! They serve to remind the audience that something is going wrong that is out of the family’s control!

How Lamb keeps you guessing in regards to its message.

The Icelandic film takes its genres into new territory. While Hollywood might have made a far more generic horror about a violent Goat Man stalking homesteads in Iceland, or an Omen inspired story about how two parents do their best for their “unusual” child only for it to be Satan’s offspring, because heaven forbid someone be different. Lamb instead takes what sounds like a horror film pitch and turns it into a drama film, the supernatural entity only making an appearance at the very end.

The treatment of Ada suggests a very real and unconditional love from her adoptive parents. They’re completely unfazed by her origins and simply view her as a gift from God.

It briefly looks like the arrival of Petur marks the introduction of a more real character who would find Ada’s differences too much as he initially views her as some kind of monster, going so far as to make plans to kill her. However he grows to love her like an uncle and becomes a figure in her life. Mentions of the outside threats were so rare that I frequently forgot there were plotlines explored that still had to come full circle by the end as the film’s real strength is in its drama.

I spent a great deal of this film thinking that it was a metaphor for having a child who was different to the norm, there are people who don’t understand, but she is still loved for who she is.

There were moments when I thought the film was about the selfishness of parents, as the family get drunk and watch sports, making Ada unhappy in her environment. Not too mention Maria’s choice to kill her biological mother as she felt threatened over who Ada belongs to. There is even some hinting that they are using Ada as a replacement for their own child who died previously to the events of the film.

When Ada’s real father made a bloody and devastating return, I was disappointed as I had grown attached to my own idea of what this film was about, making me wond er if the film was strangely anti adoption. However it did bring every thread full circle and I was more impressed with the film for doing that while addressing a variety of meanings and messages.

Conclusion

Ultimately Maria and Ingvar are flawed people and Ada wasn’t theirs to take despite their love for her and I wonder if Ingvar’s death warrant was signed from the beginning or at the murder of Ada’s true mother. But just because this is the story the film told, doesn’t mean it did not successfully deal with the subjects of a child who is different, the mistakes that families can make and many others that the audience took. Lamb is a fantastic film that I strongly recommend taking a trip to the cinema for!