The Other Lamb
The horror creeps up on us in Malgorzata Szumowska’s “The Other Lamb.” This is an example of a slow-burn film that keeps things at a simmer, letting us get sucked into its world, before the real terror begins. Of course, the real terror began, many years before this film starts, and Szumowska and her screenwriter, Catherine S. McMullen, spend every minute of this film’s 96 revealing what that entails, until the conclusion leads the film to its natural conclusion.
The Shepherd (Michiel Huisman) and his Flock have been in this location for some time; watching them go about their days, their rituals, it is the only life so many of them know. His Flock consists solely of women (the “wives”) and girls (the “sisters”), and they listen rapturously as he imparts his stories on them. They have a flock of sheep and a ram that they tend to, and a place to go when their bleeding starts. We focus in on one girl, Selah (Raffey Cassidy), as her responsibilities become more, and her bleeding starts. We also see that her mind is unsettled, with visions of women drowning and a waterfall in the night. Things are changing rapidly for this community.
It’s hard to imagine, for most of us, how such a situation could exist in the present day, how someone is able to draw people to them, and keep them cut off from the world around them. When that world comes calling in this film, however, it’s time for the Shepherd to move his Flock. They must move further into isolation; even an abandoned house is too close to the outside world for them to stay. It has to be the way Shepherd says. But his hold seems to be weakening, however; his tactics of control are not as effective as the Flock walks further, and choices are made. And yet, we’ve read of cults forming, of men seducing women into a situation where they feel they have no where else to go, and using fear to make sure it’s always that way. There’s always one black sheep, however, where what worked before raises questions now. What we hear about Selah’s mother from others, we wonder if that was passed from one generation to another.
McMullen and Szumowska have told this film in a way that sucks us in to the Shepherd’s world he’s created for he and his Flock, but we aren’t suckered in by what he is saying. It’ll be baffling to most of us why Shepherd has such control over these women, but that’s part of why the story works- we are experiencing Selah’s awakening, not the Shepherd’s ability to lead. That awakening is riveting to watch; seeing where it leads is immensely satisfying. When the terror happens, it has been earned because of the deliberate control and canniness Szumowska has used in telling it. How she uses Michal Englert’s camera to frame what we’re watching. How she employs the evocative music by Rafaël Leloup and Pawel Mykietyn to create tension and atmosphere. And how she gets a performance by Cassidy that shows us an evolution in the character that is natural and compelling to watch. Her ability to tell a story, and get us to dive in, makes her the Shepherd to the audience’s Flock. We give ourselves over to her words, and her will.
