Rams, film review: Grímur Hákonarson's Cain and Abel-style saga is wonderfully idiosyncratic

(15) Grímur Hákonarson, 91 mins. Starring: Theodór Júlíusson, Sigurdur Sigurjónsson

In the community in which Rams is set, sheep are revered

You wouldn't expect a film about the everyday problems of Icelandic sheep farmers to have the intensity and deadpan humour found in Grímur Hákonarson's wonderfully idiosyncratic and moving Cain and Abel-style saga. In the community in which Rams is set, sheep are revered – credited with helping locals to survive through "ice and fire".

Two brothers, Gummi and Kiddi, live next door to each other but loathe one another. Their devotion is to their flocks. An outbreak of scabies that leads to the sheep being slaughtered is catastrophic for both – but also a chance for reconciliation.

Hákonarson has an eye both for the forbidding beauty of the landscapes and for comic detail. With their beards and jumpers, the brothers look like their livestock. The best ovine film since Shaun the Sheep.