I think I now know that I'm not a 'Icelandic comedy person'. After The Homecoming last year and now the promising Rams, either the comedy goes over my head or the comedy is so well hidden I couldn't see it.
Rams is about two brothers, both sheep farmers who live next door to each other. They haven't spoken in decades and barely interact with each other. After an annual competition, Gummi inspects his brother's winning ram to discover it has a disease. Turns out all the sheep in the valley are infected and the authorities have declared the sheep must be slaughtered. But neither Gummi or Kiddi are standing for it. Each in their own way they rebel against this decree. But sooner or later they will have to work together.
The story is wonderfully simple; two brothers who are rivals but live next door to one another react differently to the lose of their beloved sheep. Things do take a dramatic turn towards the end of the film where Kiddi, the aggressive drunk throughout the film changes and tries to take care of his brother, the more reasonable and smarter of the two. Gummi is at the centre of the film but he illustrates how the farmers in the valley live and lost they are without their sheep. Aside from the film being so wonderfully different to anything else, I still can't understand the comedy. I think I need to see more Icelandic films, not comedies, just other films from the country. The film had an odd pace which I enjoyed and even though what was happening was at times distressing, it was still serene and unlike typical British or American films.
Keep an eye out for my next destination.