106 mins |
Rated
M (Violence, offensive language, sex scenes & nudity)
Directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson
Starring Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Noomi Rapace, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson
Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) run a sheep farm together in a remote Icelandic valley. Neither of them has been happy since the loss of their daughter, so when they find another child to adopt, they don't hesitate... never mind that the baby has rather more hooves and wool than you'd expect a baby to have. What's stranger still is that the smitten couple treats the child as if she is perfectly normal, which makes Valdimar Jóhannsson's atmospheric folk horror/ deadpan comedy both explosively funny and spine-tinglingly eerie. "Jóhannsson's stunningly assured first feature... is a disturbing experience," says David Rooney in The Hollywood Reporter, "but also a highly original take on the anxieties of being a parent, a tale in which nature plus nurture yields a nightmare".
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Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) run a sheep farm together in a remote Icelandic valley. Neither of them has been happy since the loss of their daughter, so when they find another child to adopt, they don't hesitate... never mind that the baby has rather more hooves and wool than you'd expect a baby to have. What's stranger still is that the smitten couple treats the child as if she is perfectly normal, which makes Valdimar Jóhannsson's atmospheric folk horror/ deadpan comedy both explosively funny and spine-tinglingly eerie. "Jóhannsson's stunningly assured first feature... is a disturbing experience," says David Rooney in The Hollywood Reporter, "but also a highly original take on the anxieties of being a parent, a tale in which nature plus nurture yields a nightmare".