This Sunday, we cover “Angel of Mine”, a 2019 release and a remake of a French film with Noomi Rapace playing a woman who’s certain that a girl from the neighborhood is her own daughter, which she lost days after giving birth in a hospital fire. Is she right or is she losing her mind? In this thriller-by-the-numbers, the answer is as clear as it is predictable. While its watchable, it ticks every box of the “maternal instincts” thriller along the way. You can’t blame its director or the actors, because there isn’t a much better film within this story. It’s an OK watch for a Sunday afternoon, but for a decent film evening I’d recommend any of those films that inspired “Angel of Mine”. Next week: The Secrets We Keep.

Another fantastic interview with Valdimar Johannsson and Noomi Rapace on the making of “Lamb”, courtesy Screen Daily. Waiting for a sheep to give birth straight into the hands of lead actress Noomi Rapace was just one of the challenges of making Lamb, Icelandic filmmaker Valdimar Johannsson’s debut feature, which created a stir in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and has become the highest-grossing Icelandic film released in US cinemas (thanks to A24). The story follows an Icelandic couple (Rapace and Hilmir Snaer Gudnason) living on a remote farm who adopt a mysterious newborn, not quite sheep, not quite human, naming it Ada. Known for her booming international career with roles in the Swedish adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (and its two sequels), The Drop, Child 44 and Amazon series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Rapace was born in Sweden but grew up in Iceland. Lamb gave her a chance to return to those roots. Co-scripted by Johannsson with Icelandic screenwriter and novelist Sjon, Lamb is an Iceland-Sweden-Poland co-production, produced by Hronn Kristinsdottir and Sara Nassim at Go To Sheep alongside Piodor Gustafsson and Erik Rydell at Black Spark Prod, and Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska and Jan Naszewski at Madants. Naszew­ski’s New Europe Film Sales handles international sales. The full interview can be read here.

I grew up on a farm, [with] life and death present all the time. The circle of life is right there in front of you… and the Icelandic folklore is kind of baked into everything. My grandmother would say, “We can’t ride across this hill because we don’t want to upset the elves.” It was very much a part of life and not seen as something strange.

I’m happy to introduce a new site special that will allow me to keep up with screencaptures from Noomi’s films that haven’t been added in the last couple of years. While there are a couple of films to wrap up, I’ve decided to do it weekly with one update posted every Sunday from now on until Christmas (which will have a great surprise for all visitors) Let’s start with the first in line – 2019’s “Stockholm” about the bank robbery that gave birth to the “Stockholm Syndrome”. The Canadian film, starring Ethan Hawke, Noomi Rapace and Mark Strong, was shelfed for more than two years after being theatrically released in the US and the UK (titled “The Captor”, for whatever reason). “Stockholm” is not a documentary and a bit too focused on the absurdity of the story, in my opinion, but it’s still worth a watch, especially for Noomi’s performance. High quality screencaptures from the Blu-Ray can be now found in the photo gallery. Next week: Angel of Mine.

It took eight years and a very enticing look book before Lamb co-writer and director Valdimar Jóhannsson got Iceland’s current Oscar entry off the ground. Rapace told us during during the film’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International that Jóhannsson’s pitch was of few words, but rather a bulk of pictures in a heavy volume of illustrations he created. “I was drawn into the universe of Lamb,” Rapace said. The filmmaker co-penned the screenplay with Icelandic poet Sjón. Jóhannsson even created a clay scale model of the farm he yearned to create for the film. In finding that farmland location in Iceland, Rapace laughs that the filmmaker was “driving around the islands to find the matching farm to his clay farm.” When finally discovered, let’s just say the location was bliss. “You drove into the valleys and everything just died,” Rapace said. “It felt like you were swallowed by the universe, and everything was fading, and we were just going deeper and deeper into the world of Lamb.” Explaining how the Christ-like movie relates to today’s world, Rapace remarked: “It’s quite a universal story. It deals with parenthood, loss, healing.” “Humans versus nature and how far are we willing to go,” she added. “How much have we taken and when will nature hit back at us?” Lamb has grossed $2.7 million at the domestic box office for A24 and holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 84% certified fresh. Jóhannsson won the Un Certain Regard Prize of Originality award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Check back Monday for the panel video.

According to Deadline, Focus Features is planning a moderate release of You Won’t Be Alone on Friday, January 28, 2022 domestically in theaters. Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, the film follows a young girl who is kidnapped and then transformed into a witch by an ancient spirit. Curious about life as a human, the young witch accidentally kills a peasant in the nearby village and then takes her victim’s shape to live life in her skin. Her curiosity ignited, she continues to wield this horrific power in order to understand what it means to be human. The witch will be played by different actors and the film will include an old Macedonian dialect. The film is directed and written by Goran Stolevski. It stars Noomi Rapace, BAFTA-winner Anamaria Marinca (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), Alice Englert (Ratched), Carloto Cotta (Tabu), Félix Maritaud (Sauvage) and Sara Klimoska (Milcho Manchevski’s Willow). Producers are Kristina Ceyton (The Babadook and The Nightingale) and Sam Jennings (Cargo). Focus pre-bought world rights to the under-the-radar supernatural-horror early last year just after it had wrapped filming in Serbia. Focus will handle domestic and Universal Pictures International will handle international territories. The movie marks the feature debut of Australian-Macedonian writer-director Goran Stolevski, whose short film Would You Look At Her won Best International Short Film at 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

The Hollywood Reporter has published an interview with Noomi Rapace and Valdimar Jóhannsson – too late for its theatrical release in October, but maybe just in time for the upcoming awards season. In A24’s Lamb, Noomi Rapace’s most memorable co-star is a half-human, half-sheep newborn named Ada. As Maria, who runs a farm with her husband (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason) in remote Iceland, Rapace weathered a logistically complicated shoot that included actual nightmares. The resulting film, helmed by first-time director Valdimar Jóhannsson, who co-wrote it with frequent Björk collaborator Sjón, is an eerie, intermittently funny slice of folk horror. Rapace and Jóhannsson spoke to THR about how they made the movie and why they resist the temptation to classify it as a genre film.

Maria is a heavy character. She’s been through a lot of anguish, and she’s desperate to be a parent.
Noomi Rapace: It’s brutal to open up yourself for the emotions of losing a child. When Valdimar and his producer came to London and gave me this divine, disturbing package of the script and his lookbook, and I started to explore this world, I knew that it was a brutal, beautiful world. I knew I would need to get lost in it somehow, and I accepted that. But there were also moments when we were shooting it where I wasn’t sure where Noomi ends and Maria starts. It was quite intense. I couldn’t really sleep. In the summer in Iceland, it doesn’t really get dark. I was losing my mind.

The complete article can be read over at the The Hollywood Reporter.

A big batch of additional production stills from “Lamb” have been added to the photo gallery, alongside a couple of new on-set pictures and international posters. I have been keeping my fingers crossed for today’s announcement of the European Film Award nominations, but besides a well deserved nomination for the best film by a first-time director, “Lamb” didn’t make the cut in any other categories. It would have been a fitting honor for Noomi to be recognized 10 years after her nomination for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Anyway, have a look at the new pictures below.

With all recent films being added to the photo gallery, I went through my archives to see which production stills were missing – and there have been a lot. So enjoy lots of additional updates on Noomi’s film, television and theatre working, starting as early as 2004’s stage production of “Den älskade” all the way through the “Millennium” trilogy, “Child 44” and “Unlocked” to the most recent “The Trip”. For a complete list of updates, have a look at the previews below.

During the last couple of weeks, I’ve updated pretty much all the content of Noomi Rapace Online, so here’s a little overview: The career section has received a complete makeover with all projects being updated. Here, you’ll find shortcuts to the photo galleries, related videos as well as streaming options. The press archive has been updated as well (I’ll think of a better way to make them easier to browse) and I’ve been able to revive the old video archive. While there have been some broken links, I’ve decided to start this section completely new, so we can make sure that all videos are still available. They are neatly sorted into categories, so you can browse by year, public appearances, television interviews and much more. The only thing missing are the video clips from her earlier films, they will be added step by step as time permits. And with a lot of updates on the photo gallery, Noomi Rapace Online is pretty much back in shape. Have a look around, enjoy your stay and check back soon for more to come.

According to Deadline, Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb has been selected as Iceland’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2022 Academy Awards. Lamb, which debuted in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and won its Prize of Originality is Jóhannsson’s first feature and is released domestically by A24. This past weekend, it hit the Top 10 for the second frame running at the North American box office, surging past $2M. Jóhannsson co-wrote the screenplay with celebrated Icelandic poet Sjón. Noomi Rapace, who is also an executive producer, stars in the dark and malevolent folktale about a childless couple in rural Iceland who make an alarming discovery one day in their sheep barn and soon face the consequences of defying the will of nature. Prior to its U.S. debut, Lamb took prizes at the Sitges Catalonian International Film Festival. Panda, the sheepdog in the movie, also shared the Palm Dog Awards’ Jury Prize in Cannes. In its home market, the movie opened September 24 via Sena and has held in the Top 5 amid Hollywood newcomers. At open in the U.S., the R-rated picture grossed $1.1M, becoming the highest grossing Icelandic film of all time in the market. It is the first title distributed by A24 to be selected as a country’s official entry for the Best International Feature Oscar race and is carrying an 84% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Iceland has previously scored one Oscar nomination in this category, for 1991’s Children Of Nature by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. Baltasar Kormakur’s 2012 drama The Deep made the shortlist.