Rams

Rams is a 2015 Icelandic drama film written and directed by Grímur Hákonarson. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Prix Un Certain Regard. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. It was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but it was not nominated. In 2016, online newspaper Kjarninn voted it the second-greatest Icelandic film of all time. Plot Two sheep farming brothers have not spoken to each other for forty years due to differences in their personalities, complicated by one brother, Kiddi's, poor temper and alcoholism (it is implied his problems caused him to be disinherited, another source of strife between them), and the other brother, Gummi's, resentment and jealousy over Kiddi's prize-winning ram. They live in adjacent houses on the family farm, legally owned by the sober brother. Both are unmarried and attached to their flocks. A prize-winning ram belonging to Kiddi is found to have scrapie after Gummi reports its symptoms, which is then found in two other farms, necessitating the slaughter of all the sheep in the valley. The farmers must burn their hay and disinfect the barns. Gummi kills his flock before the biohazards team arrive, but hides a few ewes and a ram in his basement, as they are the last of their breed. His brother resents Gummi for reporting the disease and the subsequent cull, inflaming tensions between them. Kiddi refuses to kill his sheep and, after authorities intervene and cull them, he becomes drunk and abusive more often. He also refuses to clean his barn; so as the legal owner, Gummi must step in and clean it—which he does while Kiddi is in hospital. Upon his return, sobered-up Kiddi accidentally discovers Gummi's hidden sheep and wants to help save them, but Gummi refuses all association. When a member of the cleanup team also discovers the sheep, the two brothers are forced to collaborate and attempt to drive them into the highlands in a blizzard. Their quad bike bogs down in a snowdrift, and the brothers become separated. The sheep wander off, and Kiddi finds Gummi in a snowdrift, near death from hypothermia. He attempts to save his brother by building a makeshift snow shelter, but Gummi does not revive.