Rams (El valle de los carneros)

Cuando dos Aries se sientan juntos en una sala y ven juntos la película Aries, puede resultar bastante divertido incluso después del espectáculo, aunque esta producción islandesa no aporte mucho humor y, si lo hace, es un poco extraño o absurdo. Sin embargo, predomina la satisfacción. (19.11.2015)

Sheep happens. Rams (El valle de los carneros) se siente más cuando nos encantan las zonas más remotas de Islandia. La película es sensible en la descripción de los personajes y sus relaciones, refinada en la dosificación de la información, manteniendo constantemente la curiosidad del espectador, muchas veces a través de gestos en lugar de palabras. El director retrata ingeniosamente la realidad nórdica de personas para las que es inadmisible acoger en su granja una oveja criada con piensos genéticamente modificados. (23.09.2016)

Two rams reared by rams are forty years old and do not talk to each other until they are forced to do so by an infection that attacks their neighboring herds. A poetic drama about brothers who benefit from minimalist poetics, captivating landscapes, the creative cameras of the rising star Sturla Brandth Grøvlen, economical acting creations of bearded lonely people and typical Icelandic weird exotics. It ends up attempting to combine naturalism / symbolism in a conclusion that feels somewhat annoyingly didactic and amateur. But otherwise, given the competition from the Scandinavian closed dramas, Rams definitely belongs under the Cannes spotlights. [Cannes 2015] (19.05.2015)

The Icelandic nature, once again, got deep under my skin. And what’s better, is that it was in the cinema for the first time, which I am incredibly grateful for. It can be once again seen how deeply and strongly the Icelandic nation is connected to nature. Rams are based on it and it definitely isn’t an easy movie to watch, quite the opposite. There isn’t much talking in the movie, which isn’t a bad thing, because everything else is handled by the luxurious camera and the Icelandic nature. But when the talking does start, it’s more or less very factual. Here and there an absurd joke appears, which is actually typical of Icelandic movies, and in the finale, the movie even creates some feelings, which are being stretched more and more until they collide with the poetic, but a pretty brutal conclusion. There is nothing more to add, this is a clear five-star affair, and once again, hats off for a great movie experience and presentation of something new and unusual in our world. (04.11.2015)

(50th KVIFF) Together with The Virgin Mountain, an Icelandic combo of old, sad fat men. A film about two quarrelling sheep-farming brothers who have lost their herds to scrapie. The extreme situation gradually forces them to exchange a few of words and re-evaluate their relationship. From Scandinavia I’m more used to dramedies than pure dramas, but watch out, Rams is really very serious and slow, and the humour is present only in trace amounts. More an emotional than a narrative film that filled me with melancholy and sadness. At home in front of the computer, it’d probably be boring, but on the festival screen it was engrossing. 80 % (11.07.2015)