Rams

Although billed as a deadpan “comedy,” few will find much that is funny about Icelandic filmmaker Grímur Hákonarson's well-made, doleful Rams (Iceland's entry for the 2015 Academy Awards), a tale drawn from the director's own family's sheep-farming background. In a remote village at the foot of the mountains, long-estranged older bachelor brothers Gummi and Kiddi raise sheep, with the irascible Kiddi's usually taking top prizes at the miniscule agriculture contests. Gummi, however, alerts authorities when he discovers that Kiddi's ram has a highly contagious mad cow-type disease—an act that brings an extermination team in to eradicate every sheep in the valley, which includes the family herd that the squabbling men have maintained for decades. A film about a dying way of life as seen through the conflict of two siblings, the offbeat Rams is recommended. (C. Cassady)