🎬 Lamb (2021) – Mother. Nature. And something... unnatural.

They wanted a child. What they got was something else entirely

Lamb (Dýrið), the haunting Icelandic folk-horror from director Valdimar Jóhannsson, is a masterclass in unsettling quiet. Set in the barren beauty of the Icelandic countryside, the film weaves a tale of grief, longing, and the terrifying consequences of interfering with nature.

Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), a childless farming couple, live in near isolation, surrounded by sheep and silence. One day, something extraordinary—and inexplicable—happens in their barn: a lamb is born with the body of a human child. Rather than recoiling, they embrace the creature as their own, naming her Ada, and raising her as if she were truly theirs.

What follows is a chilling blend of parental tenderness and surreal dread. The couple’s joy is tinged with unease, as their choice to “adopt” this unnatural child defies the order of things. When a mysterious figure from Ingvar’s past appears, secrets surface, and the looming threat of nature’s retribution grows stronger.

With minimal dialogue, stunning cinematography, and a hypnotic pace, Lamb evokes the quiet terror of films like The Witch or Under the Skin. It’s a meditation on grief, guilt, and the primal instinct to nurture—even when what you’re nurturing may not belong to you.

Strange, poetic, and deeply disturbing, Lamb asks: What do we owe to the wild things we try to tame? And what do they owe us in return?