Directed by Grímur Hákonarson. Reviewed by Paul Sorrell 

This spellbinding tale of two feuding Icelandic sheep farmers has deservedly won a stack of international film awards including Best Film at Cannes, and was nominated by Iceland for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards. Bachelor brothers and fierce rivals, Gummi and Kiddi, haven’t spoken to each other for 40 years. Expertly handled by director Hákonarson, their story has all the spareness and suppressed passion of a medieval saga.

Living on adjoining properties, Gummi (played by Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi’s (Theodór Júlíusson) houses are a stone’s throw from each other. But the brothers never communicate, other than via the occasional curse or alcohol-fuelled rant. Matters of life and death are relayed by sheep dog!

Although the gulf between the brothers seems unbridgeable, they are bound together by their sheep — between them they share the last remaining animals of a prized and ancient breed. The two men, who are similar in so many ways, love their sheep as fiercely and tenderly as if they were their wives and children. So when scrapie comes to their valley and the authorities order the destruction of all the sheep in the district, the brothers’ world threatens to collapse into an unthinkable abyss.

This understated story is played out against the stark fields and low hills of northern Iceland (the landscape reminded me strongly of Central Otago), a setting which adds an extra layer of threat as well as beauty as winter advances. The play of light and dark is skilfully used to trace the film’s emotional trajectory, and numerous details encapsulate the rugged way of life pursued by the brothers — from pegs on a washing line encased in ice to Gummi scrubbing his prize ram in the bathtub or clipping his toenails with outsize scissors. Humour and pathos are seamlessly interwoven in a story where no detail seems discordant or out of place.

A desperate situation calls for desperate measures and, having reached a peak of intensity, the brothers’ rivalry subsides as they join forces to save their threatened way of life. The final scene is wholly unexpected, as Gummi and Kiddi are reduced to the essence of their shared kindred and common humanity, each a “poor, bare, forked animal” exposed to the elements. It ranks as one of the most moving and deeply truthful denouements I have experienced on screen, and the comparison with King Lear is wholly apt. Don’t miss this quirky but profound drama.

Published in Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 209, Oct 2016: 29.