Lamb, based on the novel by Bonnie Nadzam, traces the self-discovery of David Lamb in the weeks following the disintegration of his marriage and the death of his father. Hoping to regain some faith in his own goodness, he turns his attention to Tommie, an awkward and unpopular eleven-year-old girl. Lamb is convinced that he can help her avoid a destiny of apathy and emptiness, and takes Tommie for a road trip from Chicago to the Rockies, planning to initiate her into the beauty of the mountain wilderness. The journey shakes them in ways neither expects.
Far removed from the prettified, exotic look of a National Geographic trip to deep Africa, Zeleke offers a full scale, detailed portrait of the Ethiopian village at a time when the entire country was starving.
A young Ethiopian boy and his rust-colored ewe are the protagonists of Lamb, the beautifully crafted if rather familiar first feature from Yared Zeleke.
I's a delicately satisfying drama with coming-of-age elements, deeply sympathetic to its characters and very much attuned to the landscape around them.
