In ‘Lamb,’ a haunting Icelandic film about motherhood
ABC News
Noomi Rapace flew into Iceland to film “Lamb” on a Sunday and on Monday morning, she was literally delivering baby lambs on camera
Noomi Rapace flew into Iceland to film “Lamb” on a Sunday and on Monday morning, she was literally delivering baby lambs on camera. There wasn’t time to wait or practice. It was the last week of lambing season and the crew had already told the mother sheep that they could not give birth until Rapace arrived. They were at least half-joking.
Although Rapace has been put to the test in films like “Prometheus” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” delivering baby animals was a new one.
“I had this adrenaline rush right before I stepped in and I could just feel my heart racing,” Rapace said. “And then as soon as I was in the situation, it just felt so natural. It felt like I know how to do this weirdly enough. You don’t have time to think or to be nervous. You just got to do it, you know?”
In some ways, it was an appropriately intense and bizarre start for what is certainly an intense and bizarre film in which a childless couple, María (Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason), discover a half lamb, half human baby in their barn and decide to raise her as their own. It’s almost a no-brainer that A24, the studio and distributor that has put out films like “Midsommar” and “The Lobster,” would jump at the chance to bring this strange Icelandic tale to a wide audience (it opens Friday in North American theaters).