Ultimately, it is unsurprising the love between estranged brothers at the heart of an isolated farming community in Iceland, so, at the heart of this film, is a strong one, disguised in a vehement stalemate where neither has spoken to the other in forty years. You wonder briefly where this schism comes from, but get swept into the emotional drama of both men losing their livelihood, a loss that asserts itself as a foil for their estrangement. Rams (Hrútar) can be bleak if you fast forward and pause in chunks, but reveals a vulnerable humanity punctuated by on-location natural beauty. Not since Midnight Cowboy perhaps, have I felt a brotherly love so wrapped in tactile closeness.

Early in Rams, local veterinarians give devastating news to brothers Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson) along with their Bardardalur farming community. One of Kiddi’s rams has contracted scrapie, an incurable disease...