The County
Dir: Grímur Hákonarson (1hr 32mins) (12A)
★★★★
In 2015, a film about a pair of feuding Icelandic sheep farmers was a surprise international hit, said Mark Kermode in The Observer. Now, the director of – Grímur Hákonarson – is back with a drama about a dairy farmer who takes on a powerful local co-operative. We first meet Inga (Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir) as she pulls a calf from its mother’s womb on the remote farm that has been in her husband’s family for years. It is a tough life, that she has endured for him – so when he is killed in a road accident, leaving her with a mountain of debt, she feels not only grief and loss, but also a sense of betrayal. These feelings then turn to anger, directed at the co-operative that was set up to protect local farmers, but now exerts a stranglehold over them. Convinced that it helped drive her husband to his grave, she writes a furious blog about it – and finds herself on the TV news.
Rams,
Rams The County,
In the mood “started droll and turned dark”, said Danny Leigh in the FT. Here, “the trajectory is flipped”. The first section of the film is undoubtedly bleak, as Inga’s grief is compounded by rage at the powerful forces ranging against her. But the film isn’t just a “humanist character study” and a political drama about vested interests and corruption: it is also a “self-aware comedy”. Hákonarson “knows there is something ticklish about a thriller played out in thick woollens amid fertiliser deliveries”. At times, there are “hints of Ealing Comedy”, said Kevin Maher in The Times. And as our protagonist’s campaign proceeds, there are enough “punch-the-air moments” to make the film qualify as a “feel-good charmer”.
Home Cinema.
Available on Curzon