The other lamb

 

Spoilers ahead

The other lamb is an oddly empowering movie for woman and girls alike. Showing that we are not sheep/the flock/victims that men can dispose of and rule, but that we are wild women. Beings " made of moonlight and teeth." as Selah had said. 

The movie revolves around a cult of woman led by a man who refers to himself as "The Shepard". This man tries to immortalize himself by creating this godlike myth. The only problem being that he is merely a man. A man who lusts and believes himself to be blameless and without sin. 

The cults first home is covered by white strings, connecting the trees and creating spaces where "The shepherd" can provide sermons to his wives and daughters. For me the strings show the interconnectivity of the group but also it indicates or hints to the old saying, "Oh, What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive..." (poem by Sir Walter Scott) Hinting that the lies and deceit of the shepherd would soon catch him in a trap just as a spiders web traps an insect. 

Throughout the film we see beautiful scenery and multiple hints at how man destroys women to be able to rule them. We often see a Selah staring a ram, the ram of the flock of sheep owned by the cult, and at one point we see Selah on her hands and knees facing the ram. This image is a foreboding image, one that reveals the future where woman shall face off with man to regain their freedom. More imagery we see to do with sheep is the outside herding of the sheep by a sheepdog, keeping the sheep close to the ram just like the lies of a broken world the shepherd tells, the fear he instills keep his women close to him. He herds them in the direction he wants them to go by using fear and naivety. Furthermore we see a small sheep born skinned and bleeding, one that Selah kills in her mind. This is symbolic of the end of Selah's innocence and the start of a new chapter for her. One where she will become impure, a lustful artifact, a chapter where she realizes her true violence, her true wild nature. 

Throughout the film we see women drowning or rather being drowned by an unknow source, and it is implied that it is a man that uses brute strength to drown them. This might elude to how men are seen as superior due to their brute strength and size and that they hold women down and in a sense drown them by snuffing out their voice and using lies to delude them. 

Now heading into some PG territory... (discretion is advised as there will be discussions on sexual assault, nudity, death and assault)

During childbirth, one of the shepherds wives die. He then burns her on a pyre with his wives under the pretense that she is entering the new world. (I believe he wanted to be rid of the evidence of his humanly nature) He then tells the rest of his flock that the baby wasn't born right and had to be left with the mothers ashes so it can join its mother in the next word. Later when Sarah lags behind the flock and Selah walks back to find out why she is falling behind, it is revealed by Sarah that the child is a boy and is perfectly fine. After imparting her last speck of wisdom on Selah, Sarah leaves the groups procession with the child. She isn't afraid anymore, she has a purpose now. 

Later we see the violence the Shepherd is capable of when he kicks and brutally slaps one of his children, disowning her and calling her weak. This will act as the catalyst for his ultimate demise. This will be the catalyst for the pure feminine rage that will envelop the people who he deemed weak of body and mind.

When Sarah is first able to get through to Selah that the shepherd isn't who he says he is, she talks about a time when she stood before the waterfall, nude and felt wild. Later after Selah had in effect been groomed and raped by the shepherd, she becomes angry and goes directly against the shepherds rules. She uses her imagination, her power of word and charisma to tell a story of a woman that was wild and in her natural form. The imagery in this scene as Selah is speaking is that of a nude women whom we assume to be Sarah when she was still young. Here we see that whilst the shepherd was Selah's idle when she was young and naive, Sarah, the woman who everyone judged and hated for her sins, had become her idol and aspiration. 

In the end have the older wives being sacrificed/killed by the shepherd so that he can take younger wives (his own fucking daughters!?!?). It may be that the other women were "sacrificed" so that the "other lambs", aka the daughters may live and become the hunters/ their own shepherds.

After becoming the wild women they are, the girls killed the man that they once called the shepherd. They strung him up between two trees, the puppet master becoming the puppet, strung up by his own lies.

The ending scene we see all the visions that Selah has had throughout the movie, this then cuts to Selah who is holding a lamb. A black sheep-alluding to her being the black sheep of the flock and how this has helped her survive and ultimately become free and wild again as is in her nature.

I quite enjoyed this movie. It was beautifully shot with a lot of references and symbolic imagery. It gave me some of my favorite quotes and like I stated earlier this is truly an empowering movie.

• Visuals: 10/10
• Sound quality: 10/10
• Visual effect: 10/10
• Sound effect: 10/10
• Character growth: 10/10
• Acting: 10/10
• Total: 10/10