Film Review - RAMS - Icelandic drama

Brothers Gummi and Kiddi herd their prize sheep into the mountains

Written and directed by Grímur Hákonarson, RAMS is the story of the relationship between two brothers in the harsh rural hinterland of Northern Iceland. Gummi (actor, Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and his older brother, Kiddi (actor, Theódór Júlíusson) both aged in their 60s live on adjoining farming properties but have not spoken to each other for over 40 years. Instead they communicate by written message delivered by their dog. Their livelihood and passion are their sheep and the annual Ram competition in the small Icelandic community which is their home. When the contagious sheep disease, scrapie, is discovered  in the valley and in Kiddi's prize ram, a crisis envelopes all the farming community as they face the destruction of their herds. Gummi and Kiddi's isolationist stance toward each other is finally broken as they make one last desperate gamble to save their prize breeding stock.

This is a film structured and fashioned within the Icelandic genre of deadpan, almost absurdist black humour and long brooding expressions of Icelandic stoicism. Sweeping landscapes and atmospheric effects abound in this film and as one reviewer commented, " if there's an end to this Earth, this must surely be the place".