Two sheep farming brothers haven't spoken to each other for forty years due to differences in their personalities, complicated by one brother's poor temper and alcoholism, and the other brother's resentment and jealousy. They live in adjacent houses on the family farm, legally owned by the sober brother. Both are unmarried and attached to their flocks. A prize-winning ram belonging to the alcoholic brother is found to have scrapie, causing all the sheep in the whole region – even though they show no symptoms – to be destroyed as a precaution so that the disease does not spread to the entire country. The farmers must also burn all their hay and disinfect the barns. The sober brother, Gummi, kills his own flock before the biohazards team arrive, but he hides a few ewes and a ram in the basement of his house, as they are the last of their breed. His errant brother Kiddi blames Gummi for reporting the disease and the subsequent kill, inflaming tensions between them. Kiddi refuses to kill his own sheep, and after authorities intervene and exterminate them, he becomes more frequently drunk and abusive. He also refuses to clean his barn; so as the legal owner, Gummi must step in and clean it – which he does while Kiddi is in the hospital. Upon his return, sobered-up Kiddi accidentally discovers Gummi's hidden flock of sheep and wants to help save them, but Gummi refuses all association. When a member of the cleanup team also discovers the hidden sheep, the two brothers are forced to collaborate and they attempt to drive them into the highlands in a blizzard. Their quad bike bogs down in a snowdrift, and the brothers become separated. The drove wander off, and Kiddi finds Gummi in a snowdrift, near death from hypothermia. He attempts to save his brother by building a makeshift snow shelter, but Gummi does not revive. The film ends with Kiddi attempting to warm Gummi in the womb-like shelter, acknowledging their reconciliation.
Rams was based on a story told by the director's father about two brothers sharing the same land who had a falling out over a woman and stopped speaking to each other for 40 years. Grímur liked the tragicomic underpinnings of the story, noting that such conflicts can be common in rural Iceland and beyond. "These brothers are not only in sheep farming, they are also in the parliament.” The film was shot with anamorphic lenses to impart the feeling of a western and was partially inspired by the 2007 filmThere Will Be Blood, as well as the work of the Finnish filmmaker, Aki Kaurismäki. Sigurður Sigurjónsson and Theodór Júlíusson, two of Iceland's best known actors, prepared for their roles by working on a sheep farm. Most of the other characters were actual farmers, as was the film's sheep trainer.
Reception
Rams received critical acclaim from critics. On the review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 99 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 7.7/10. The critical consensus states: "Rams transcends its remote location -- and somewhat esoteric storyline -- by using the easily relatable dynamic between two stubborn brothers to speak universal truths." On Metacritic, the film has a normalized score of 82 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
