 |
| Two of the stars of Rams. |
Veterinary cinema is niche, with veterinary themes in
mainstream movies few and far between. Many – possibly even some veterinarians –
might be relieved about this. But now and then a film with veterinary themes
pops up, which one might feel compelled to see.
The Icelandic so-called “tragicomedy”, Rams, is a recent addition to the
veterinary cinematic archives. The story
revolves around Gummi (SIGURĐUR
SIGURJÓNSSON) and Kiddi (THEODÓR
JÚLÍUSSON), feuding bachelor brothers living on neighbouring sheep
properties, who have not spoken for 40 years. Now and then they send each other
a note, carried in the mouth of their sheep dog, but relations are more than a
tad frosty.
Both are proud of their rams who carry an ancient lineage
and regularly win awards. The town veterinarian, played by CHARLOTTE BÖVING, judges the awards.
But after one
particularly bitter competition, Gummi observes what he believes are signs of
scrapie in Kiddi’s prize Ram. Scrapie is a transmissible spongiform
encephalopathy (TSE), related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy or Mad Cow
Disease. It leads to incurable degenerative neurological disease which is
fatal. Gummi goes home that night and, in a scene reminiscent of The Crying Game, washes his prize ram in
the bath as if he can scrub away the scrapie (this doesn’t work).
 |
| This will not get rid of scrapie, or any other TSE. |
The town
veterinarian, once rewarding the farmers for their excellent stock, must carry
out an order to cull all sheep on the properties. I must admit I didn’t quite
get the “omedy” part of this “tragicomedy”. I could feel the vet’s anguish, the
despair of both men – deeply attached to their sheep – was evident and the
absolute heartbreak of culling one’s stock to contain an infectious disease was
clear. Its a movie that haunted me and I'll admit for therapeutic reasons I had to dig for a bit of background info.
Director Grímur
Hákonarson knew it well. His dad used to work for the Ministry of Agriculture.
“One of the hardest
things my father ever had to face in his professional life was making decisions
about whether certain livestock should be slaughtered – or not – in the event
of an outbreak of disease,” he said.
 |
| The town veterinarian, Katrin (played by Charlotte Boving) judging the ram competition. |
Analysis of
reviews suggests one aspect of the movie that some deemed comic was the men’s
attachment to their respective flocks – something unremarkable and not
necessarily comic if you know people who look after animals. But Hákonarson is
making the point that such strong emotional connection with animals is very
rare in modern society.
“…people like my
main characters Gummi and Kiddi are dying out,” he said. Hákonarson feels this
is disappointing because he wants the eccentricity to live on. I think its
disappointing as one wants good animal husbandry to live on.
Scrapie is a big
concern in Iceland. The disease originally spread to Iceland via British sheep in
the late 19th century, and has not yet been eradicated. Hákonarson’s
own niece had scrapie diagnosed in her flock, and he described the profound
psychological impact it had on her and her family (and that's not even adding the consideration of the welfare of affected animals).
For the characters
in his movie, this impact was compounded by isolation. As a companion animal
veterinarian I am rarely faced with the need to cull or kill a single animal
for the protection of others, although there are cases where this may be deemed
the best solution (or the lesser of two evils). This is a concern more commonly faced by
colleagues working with livestock. The impact on veterinarians, farmers and of course livestock is huge.
On a happier note,
I learned that in pre-production for the movie, auditions were held for sheep, which sounds like a lot of fun.
“It turns out that
sheep’s temperaments vary greatly between farms,” Hákonarson said. “On one farm
we went to, the sheep weren’t at all docile, and they ran away from us as soon
as we tried approaching them. But after a lot of searching we ended up at a
farm called Halldórsstaðir where Begga, the farmer there, treats her sheep with
love and affection. The rams there came
right over to us and gave us a nudge as if they wanted a little scratch behind
the ears”.
“These sheep were
great to work with, in fact even easier than working with actors. A local farmer from Budardalur, Magnus
Skarphédinsson, was our sheep trainer, and he did an amazing job.”
