There’s a darker thread unraveling at the same time, though, the seeming inevitability that Selah, too, will become a wife, as the Shepherd’s predatory ways, while invisible to his flock, are clear to the audience. The slow seep of uncertainty into her life is the most compelling thread Szumowska tugs at, as the possibility of her liberation hangs in the balance. As the film begins, she’s reprimanded for an act of pettiness committed out of jealousy of the Shepherd’s favor, and she spends most of the early film trying to curry his favor. That fracture grows wider as the community moves and Selah grows closer to Sarah (Denise Gough), one of the Shepherd’s wives whom he now refers to as a “broken thing,” relegating her to the fringes of the group. However, as she grows older - and the Shepherd takes a wife just barely older than she is - her affection for him wanes. She’s favored for her beauty (the Shepherd tells her she reminds him of her mother, who supposedly died giving birth to her) and her “purity,” as she hasn’t started menstruating yet. Those questions weigh heavily on one of the daughters, Selah (Raffey Cassidy). The Shepherd (Michiel Huisman) surrounded by his flock. Does he really know where he’s leading them? Is his increasing cruelty warranted? The journey to reach one is arduous, bringing out the Shepherd’s less godly personality traits, and forcing his followers to reassess their situation. The outside world seems nonexistent, and the movie seems to be set in the past - until a modern police car arrives on the property, and its passenger informs the Shepherd that he and his followers must find a new home. They seem to be suspended out of time, as the Shepherd dresses in robes, and the “wives” and “daughters” (the female children the Shepherd has fathered) are dressed in red and blue frocks, respectively. The cult at the center of The Other Lamb is led by a man (Michiel Huisman) who styles himself as “the Shepherd,” and the women who follow him as his “flock.” He’s portrayed in Christ-like murals around the forest they call home. Scenes of sexual abuse and assault are frequent, and the constant focus on the suffering the film’s women endure feels unwarranted in light of how thin the story ultimately is. Director Małgorzata Szumowska and cinematographer Michał Englert have crafted a gorgeous movie that’s still difficult to watch. Stories about cults led by men fashioning themselves as gods and abusing young women are tough to stomach in fiction and in reality, and the arthouse drama The Other Lamb is no exception to that rule. There’s always satisfaction in watching abhorrent characters get their due, but the journey leading to their comeuppance is crucial - it makes any catharsis more satisfying, but it also provides context, and a point to what’s happening.
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