In a remote Icelandic farming valley, a hard-drinking Icelandic farmer (Theodór Júlíusson) and his estranged brother (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) who haven't spoken in 40 years band together to save their flocks of sheep from authorities who want the animals destroyed.
It's a delight to encounter a film that quietly, gradually creeps up on you; which, without seeming to expand a huge amount of effort in so doing, puts a smile on your face.
Rams isn't the film that is going to definitively put Iceland on the world cinema map, but it is the boldest invitation yet about the distinctive tone of their cinema.
In its attentive and hushed way, the movie is about collision: between stubborn farmers and the government veterinary board, between ancient ways and modern times, between two old, hardheaded brothers.
Gummi and Kiddi's interactions tend toward the comical, but the rock-steady widescreen cinematography by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen lends the proceedings a deadpan aura.
