Rams

The rams of the title are not just the sheep but the two brothers. They are stubborn, headstrong, dumb, and like the sheep afflicted with scrapies insane.

Gummi was always the good brother, solid, dependable. Kiddi was the delinquent, irresponsible and wild. So their father left the family sheep farm to Gummi. Of course that only made Kiddi more of a wastrel, wild and drunk. Their dying mother made Gummi promise he would always let Kiddi farm there two. The old bachelors live in neighboring farmhouses, communicating only through messages relayed by a sheepdog. Twice we see Gummi reluctantly forced to save Kiddi from freezing to death.

When Kiddi’s flock is found to have scrapies all the flocks have to be eliminated to prevent its spread. Financial compensation is provided, along with government assistance in the killing and cleansing. But that doesn’t make up for the community’s loss of their sheep, their warmth and companionship, through the lonely freeze.

Ever anti-social, Kiddi refuses to comply but is arrested and his flock destroyed. Gummi pretends to comply, but against regulations kills the sheep himself. He feels too much love for his sheep, one ram in particular, so he stashes the ram and several ewes in his basement. Though Gummi is the more virtuous, secreting possibly afflicted sheep in his basement is a criminally antisocial indulgence. 

When Kiddi learns Gummi’s secret the brothers begin to reconnect. When the sheep are discovered Kiddi helps Gummi first hide them, then drive them off into the mountains. Gummi’s new delinquency brings the brothers together.

     The film closes on Gummi naked in Kiddi’s embrace as they struggle to stay warm in a cave Kiddi has carved for them under the storming snow. This time Kiddi saves Gummi. “It will be alright, Gummi,” Kiddi assures him, but there is no sign of life in him. Do both survive? Does just one? No matter — the brothers have bridged their decades-old schism and are together in the snow in a womb-like warmth.