‘The Other Lamb’ slow, but never dull
The Other Lamb Not rated. Running time: 97 minutes. On Video on Demand. out of 4
“The Other Lamb” is a nicely twisted film about an all-female cult that lives in the woods and is led by a man (Michiel Huisman), whose only job is to preach and propagate the order. Whenever he wants to have sex with a new favorite, he approaches and asks, “Do you accept my grace?” The answer is always yes.
Apparently, this cult has existed for some time, because, in addition to the younger women, there are also women who appear to be in their 40s and were former favorites. Now they’re known as “broken things” or “cursed wives.” Occasionally, one of the curses wives will say something critical of “The Shepherd,” as the cult leader is known, but the younger women won’t believe her. The Shepherd is all good and all knowing.
Raffey Cassidy (“Vox Lux”) plays one of the younger members, Selah, whose late mother was involved in the cult before Selah was born. Something that slowly dawns on the audience, without it having to be explicitly stated, is that all these younger women in the cult — with whom the Shepherd is having carnal relations — are his daughters. And the cursed wives are their mothers.
Directed by the Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska, “The Other Lamb” is slow-moving but never dull, because the world of it is so distinct and odd. One day, Selah notices that she is bleeding from between the legs and starts screaming — sex education is not a priority in this cult — and the arrival of womanhood signals, for the Shepherd, her availability. But the difference between Selah and the other girls is that she has a touch of strength and objectivity. The question is how much and will it be enough?
By the way, you might wonder — I wondered — why all these mothers have only given birth to daughters. That would seem statistically impossible, wouldn’t it? A boy should have slipped in there some time, right? Eventually all questions are answered.
One thing fascinating about real-life cult leaders is that they are usually so transparently phony and ridiculous that we wonder how they could fool anyone. It’s as if they somehow targeted the only gullible people susceptible to their particular line of nonsense, and everyone else is immune. “The Other Lamb” captures that truth, and that’s the particular kick of Huisman’s performance.
To appreciate what Huisman does here you must realize that he is not trying to persuade to join his cult. He is showing that this guy is a dangerous empty suit, a vapid monster of selfishness and ego. Huisman succeeds at that completely because he doesn’t indulge himself by showing any other side to the character, e.g., that the Shepherd was once a wounded little boy, etc. His Shepherd is as he should be, both mysterious and profoundly transparent — a truly broken and cursed thing, but also ludicrous.