The 2022 Nordic Council Film Prize has been awarded to Iceland’s “Lamb”, directed Valdimar Jóhannsson, who co-wrote with Sjón; and produced by Hrönn Kristinsdóttir and Sara Nassim. The award was presented on Tuesday evening (November 2) during the Nordic Council’s autumn session in Helsinki. The lucrative Nordic Council Film Prize comes with a cash award of $39,800 (DKK 300,000), which is shared between the director, writers, and producers in honour of the collaborative nature of filmmaking. Lamb, which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2021 and won the ‘prize of originality’, is a supernatural drama about an Icelandic couple (played by Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snaer Gudnason) who find a mysterious newborn on their farm. The other nominees this year – one each from the Nordic countries – were Godland by Hlynur Pálmason submitted by Denmark, The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic by Teemu Nikki for Finland, The Worst Person In The World by Joachim Trier from Norway and Clara Sola by Nathalie Alvarez Mesen from Sweden.

At long last, I’m happy to present you with Blu-Ray screencaptures of “Lamb”, which has been released in most territories on-demand and home video by now. If you haven’t seen it by now, make sure to grab your copy to witness not only one of the most fascinating films of the last years, but also one of Noomi’s very best performances so far. Besides the screencaptures from the film (spoilers ahead), I’ve also added the disc’s deleted scenes, making of and on-set pictures. Enjoy.

On Friday, Noomi Rapace was interviewed on the Swedish programme Nyhetsmorgon, promoting both the theatrical release of “Lamb” in Sweden and the global release of “Black Crab” on Netflix this Friday. Unfortunately, the video can only be watched within Sweden, so if you’re among the lucky ones, enjoy the interview. Edit: Noomi was also interviewed on today’s Kulturnyheterna. The clip can be found in the video archive with screencaptures being added to the photo gallery.

While “Lamb” has been released in most countries around the globe, theatrically and/or on-demand, there are still some countries waiting to see Valdimar Jóhannsson’s arthouse hit – Sweden being one of the last countries to see a theatrical release. On Monday, Noomi attended the film’s premiere in Stockholm. Pictures from the event have been added to the photo gallery.

Last week, Noomi attended yet another festival screening for “Lamb”, this time at the Swedish Gothenburg Film Festival. Unfortunately, “Lamb” was not nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film as Iceland’s entry, but that would have been just the (marketing) icing on an already incredible cake. Pictures from the Gothenburg Film Festival have been added to the photo gallery. Edit: A day earlier, the world premiere for “Black Crab” took place as well, so check out some additional pictures.

The French promotion tour continues. Yesterday, Noomi attended another premiere for the film, this time in Paris. Pictures from the premiere have been added to the photo gallery, while scenes from the red carpet and post-screening Q&A can be found in the video archive. Enjoy.

Yesterday, Noomi was a guest on the ski slopes for the 13th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival in snowy Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France, to present “Lamb” as the festival’s opening night attraction. Pictures from the event have been added to the photo gallery. Edit: A lenghty interview with Noomi has been posted below and added to the video archive.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Noomi Rapace and director Valdimar Jóhannsson participated in a comprehensive media tour in the United Kingdom to promote Friday’s theatrical release of “Lamb”. There were various screenings and Q&As for the film throughout London. Pictures from all events have been added to the photo gallery.

Then, Noomi participated in two separate press junkets for the film. Clips from both, as well as a clip from the Q&A at the British Film Institute have been added to the video archive. Check the list below for a complete list of updates. Enjoy.

Another fantastic interview with Noomi’s in yesterday’s i Newspaper: For a few years when she was growing up in Iceland, Noomi Rapace lived on a farm, but she was too young to get involved with any of the day-to-day labour. So when, on her first day on the set of her new film, Lamb, she had to drive a tractor and deliver a lamb, it was something of a baptism of fire. “I knew I could not f**k up,” she tells me over coffee in a London hotel. “But I didn’t have a lot of adrenaline. There was a strange calmness.” Still, her foray into midwifery left its mark. “The weirdest thing was the very specific smell. It just wouldn’t wash off. It stayed for a week or something.” The Icelandic film, directed by first-timer Valdimar Jóhannsson, was the break-out hit at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Rapace, 41, plays a woman caught between two brothers, who loosely resemble Cain and Abel: she’s married to one and had previously been involved with the other. It is not the only biblical element to the tale; her character is called Maria, after all. When the childless couple discover a newborn in their barn, they are so excited that they fail to notice there is something odd about it – namely that it is half-lamb, half-human. The complete interview can be read over at i News – here’s Noomi’s quote on the recently wrapped “Django”, which will span over ten episodes:

I wanted to take a break. I had a Skype call with the director and writers who wanted to create a role. Then Nicholas Pinnock texted me for a coffee and I took him to work out with me in a climbing class. As we were leaving, he tells another friend: ‘I’m off to Romania tomorrow and Noomi’s going to play my sister’. And I thought: ‘I haven’t said yes yet’. The character is the most beautiful, brutal villain. I dream about her. I told the writers this, and some of my dreams have become part of the script. I have accepted imperfections and allowed myself to feel sadness, vulnerability and weakness. That’s not weakness. I was raised in a way never to cry, never show weakness. So I became very tough. I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to accept that way of living, and carrying myself, to bleed into my son’s life. I want him to be a human that has access to all emotions, where everything is allowed.

Noomi is featured in the recent international issue of The wrap Magazine, with an interview that can be read on their website as well: Noomi Rapace was sitting waiting for “the knock” on her trailer door, a sign that a mother sheep was ready to deliver a baby. She had just traveled hours to a small Icelandic village to film a movie about a hybrid lamb-human baby for six months and no money. And all her training didn’t prepare her for having to birth this little miracle on her first day of filming. “I was running down to the barn, and they were like, ‘The lamb is coming!’ OK, I’m just sticking my hands in here! I guess this is what we’re doing,” Rapace said. “It was the birth of the movie that kicked off everything, but from that point there was no return. I was just in it.” The emotional connection she formed in that moment carried through to her performance in Valdimar Jóhannsson’s “Lamb,” Iceland’s Oscar entry and a movie about coping with loss and how we go to extreme lengths to maintain a sense of normalcy. Rapace had been itching to return to art-house cinema and felt the “fragile” and “personal” story at its center was something she’d been waiting for “my entire life.” “I always need to bring it back to myself and find situations or periods in my life like an emotional mirror so I can dig into myself,” Rapace said. “I did go to places where it was really painful to be, of loss and heartbreak. How do you find your way back into life when you’re broke?” The complete interview can be read here.