Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Sigurður Sigurjónsson, Theodór Júlíusson, Charlotte Bøving, Jon Benonysson, Gunnar Jónsson, Þorleifur Einarsson, Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson, Ingrid Jónsdóttir, Jörundur Ragnarsson, Viktor Már Bjarnason, Ólafur Ólafsson, Jenný Lára Arnórsdóttir, Guðrún Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Þorsteinn Gunnar Bjarnason, Anna Sæunn Ólafsdóttir.
Tales of heroism and love abound wherever you look, sometimes it comes in the most unexpected of places, sometimes it offers a mirror up to the society in which it serves, regardless of its origin, heroism is never wasted, even it it ends up not living up to the goal it sets its self.
The British conscious, pricked by the wooing of genuinely great cinema from across the continent of late, might not be aware of Iceland’s contribution to art but from the imagination of Grímur Hákonarson and staring Sigurður Sigurjónsson and Theodór Júlíusson as two brothers, Gummi and Kiddi, with sheep farming in common but without a word passing between them for forty years, Iceland firmly stakes a claim to have its writers and actors recognised for the sheer talent that they have in their nation.
When disease strikes down a community the urge to hit out, to take matters into their own hands is overwhelming, it is as natural as defending your right to exist and Grímur Hákonarson plays with that idea superbly and with absolute humanity in the film’s soul and the sheer majesty of cinematography and using the landscape as a canvas in which to draw an impressive story from in keeping with the ideals of the Icelandic sagas of old.
Rams is a fantastic idea made beautiful, a picture which captures the essence of human existence, no matter how remote, no matter how fragile. It offers much insight into how life on the fringes of society are often dealt with as inconsequential and minor and that if you take away the one thing that keeps a community together, the whole point of life becomes barren and soulless.
Grímur Hákonarson’s script is as exquisite as the Icelandic countryside, as damning as a winter in the mountains and as hot as the volcanoes that keep the country fertile, Rams is a piece of art made real and cinema is all the better for it.
Ian D. Hall