The landscape, the weather and the sound and the music all contributing to the threat of something terrible about to occur. While there is humour here, there is menace too вЂ“ lots of it. One night, Maria puts on a video of him performing in a band, and the terrible pop video is a delight to watch, as is the older, more grizzled PГ©tur re-enacting the dance moves in the living room. In fact, there is a lot of humour here, much of it thanks to PГ©tur. Rather than a dramatic fight or an intervention following the revelation that a lamb is in the home, the director simply lingers on PГ©turвЂ™s face as he quietly absorbs the shock of his brotherвЂ™s new reality. Instead, after PГ©turвЂ™s initial shock at the sight of his new вЂnieceвЂ™, the three adults slip into a happy routine, PГ©tur accepting that the new baby is bringing the couple a newfound joy. They are all tattoos, tight black jeans and too cool for school, so when PГ©tur makes his appearance, there is a fear that the precarious equilibrium of the new family will be lost.

When the baby lamb enters the family home, another interloper also appears: IngvarвЂ™s naughty brother PГ©tur (BjГ¶rn Hlynur Haraldsson) has come from town, dumped on the road by his mates. Their relationship is one of tranquil togetherness suffused with the melancholy of that missing child. Rapace, who grew up in Iceland and is perfectly at home with the Icelandic language, and Haraldsson have obviously done their homework preparing for this film: we see them driving tractors, mucking out and caring for the sheep, both of them delivering lambs and caring for the newborns. And when we watch the two helping the ewes give birth, the irony of them being surrounded by so much life and fertility seems suddenly awful.

In the ensuing silence, the farmhouseвЂ™s lack of the raucous sounds of children and family life is deafening. Up to this point, the pair have been going about their farming duties and live in a fairly quiet harmony together, yet when Ingvar talks about an article discussing the possibility of time travel and states he doesnвЂ™t fancy heading to the future much, Maria replies that she would like to return to the past. The story is hard to tell without giving away too many spoilers, but the basic premise is this: a childless couple, Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Himir SnГ¦r GuГ°nason), living on a sheep farm deliver a lamb during lambing season that they decide to take into their home and raise as their own child. With three strong central performances and some stunning surprises, not to mention the added bonus of excellent cameos from a dog, a cat and a flock of sheep, this film is not to be missed. Valdimar JГіhanssonвЂ™s superb debut feature is a story that seems taken from an Icelandic fable as old as the hills whilst being as new and exciting as any film seen this yearin Cannes (where it is screening in the Un Certain Regard section).

The fable 2021 review