The film company A24 has produced films that audiences will remember, for better or worse. Films such as High Life, First Cow, The Lighthouse, and this year’s The Green Knight are emblematic of the studio’s style: bizarre atmosphere, unbelievable tension, and endless ambiguity. Lamb is another sample of the A24 oeuvre. It is also one of the most striking films of the year.
Directed by Valdimar Johannsonn (making his feature-length debut), Lamb tells the story of Icelandic farmers Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snaer Guonason). They lead a life of simplicity on their farm, tending to various sheep and harvesting crops. They soon find a bizarre sheep/animal hybrid, and instead of questioning this abomination, they decide to raise it as their own. As we all would do!
Many audiences will be confused by what is occurring, yet if you read the film as a Biblical allegory, it makes (a little more) sense. The film begins at Christmas, so immediately the lamb-human (named Ada) can be seen as a Christ figure of sorts. Maria can be equated to Mary, aka Mary Magdalene. Ingvar is a little out there, but there is Norse myth at work here. Ingvar means “protected by Yngvi” and “Yngvi” has allusions to a Lord-type figure.
You also have the Lamb of God imagery, which has direct connotations to Biblical imagery. Ada is also one of the first women mentioned in the Book of Genesis (albeit spelled Adah). Digging through the names gives one a better sense of what the movie is about, yet it can’t be said for sure if this was the intent. Lamb isn’t going to be a mainstream hit. However, it is an absorbing, fascinating film, and another in A24’s long list of breathtakingly bizarre films.
Read an analysis of another surreal A24 film, The Lighthouse, and its themes of repressed homosexuality.