Lamb * * * ½

In Australia a sheep farm has about three billion sheep, but in Iceland it seems a few dozen will do the job.  And they spend half the year living indoors so the cold doesn't kill them.  

This is a rather strange little film.  Some call it horror but it's just too soft to fall into that category. There are hardly any sharp shock or jump scares.

It's a very simple story. So simple, that to learn the premise is almost a spoiler.

Just add mint, gravy, spuds, peas etc

Ingvar and Maria are young farmers. For the first twenty minutes or so nothing happens.   We just watch them and their sheep.  To be honest its rather testing and you begin to wonder if they've got a story to tell.

But then the spring comes and the lambing season start.  As the ewe gives birth, the young couple look at each other in a knowing way. They wrap the lamb in a blanket and take it into their house.  They  treat it like a baby.  

We then learn they already have many baby items which have been held in storage in the barn. They dust them off and bring them into the house.

Outside the wind howls and the mother ewe howls at their window wanting her lamb back.  Something has to be done about Lamb's natural mother and her plaintiff cry - and is.

The years pass, Ingvar and Maria continue to raise the lamb.  It becomes a child. They call her Ada.  Enter the farmer's brother. He is somewhat horrified at what they have done. "It's a freak!" He tells them.  But soon he too falls in love with the charms of little Ada. 

It's more weird than horrifying.  Half the time I was laughing. I mean it was so ridiculous, but other times I was quite charmed. 

The ending is probably the most shocking. One thinks "I didn't expect that!"  But a second later, "Fair enough!"