Sheep-farming brothers Colin (Sam Neill) and Les (Michael Caton) are linked by blood. Not just their own but also, like generations before them, the bloodline of the rare breed of sheep they raise on their scratch of land in Western Australia. The feud between these bristling, taciturn men has festered for decades: they haven’t spoken in 40 years. When a deadly disease is diagnosed in Les’s prize ram and the authorities order a livestock cull in the valley, his response involves whisky and a shotgun. But Colin is cannier. Can the brothers finally find common ground?
Adapted from Grímur Hákonarson’s acclaimed 2015 film, this version trades frostbitten Nordic reserve for a broader comic approach. It works on the assumption that a story about grumpy old gits united against a common foe has a universal appeal. True, to an extent, but what the makers of this film fail to realise is that it was the specificity of the Icelandic original that made it such a glumly hilarious delight.
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