Lamb

After his mother dies, young Ephraim (Rediat Amare) and his best friend—a lamb named Chuni—travel to a distant village in his native Ethiopia to live with a great-aunt and her monstrous son, Solomon (Surafel Teka), while Ephraim's loving father goes off in search of city work. A natural chef, Ephraim pitches in, making food for the family during a terrible period of drought. But Solomon deems this unmanly and looks upon Chuni as a meal waiting to happen. Faced with unhappiness and loneliness (other boys bully him, and his only human friend is a headstrong cousin more interested in education than a husband), Ephraim sells food on the sly to raise funds for a bus ticket out of town. He also finds a way to shelter Chuni (earning him a flogging from an enraged Solomon), but all his efforts and plans amount to building a castle of sand given the overwhelming circumstances. Amare is wonderful as the stoic yet transparently miserable Ephraim, seeking solace high up in the hills where his mother comes to him in dreams. Co-writer/ director Yared Zeleke's Lamb is a visually rich movie that captures the social fabric of familial and village life in Ethiopia, while also subtly suggesting that Ephraim—although burdened and sympathetic—just might be missing out on something by not participating. Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)