Following in the footsteps of fellow European Claire Denis, Polish director Małgorzata Szumowska will release her English-language debut later this year. Szumowska, with 14 other directorial credits to her name, has been hailed consistently since the turn of the century. Winning the Teddy Award at the Berlinale Film Festival for “In the Name of,” Szumowska makes thrilling, intense films, similar to her contemporary in Denis. Prolific as most other filmmakers, she already has three other films in some stage of production, following the release of her latest that hit the festival circuit, the thriller “The Other Lamb.”
Szumowska’s new film showed at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the BFI London Film Festival, and Fantastic Fest, being acquired by the oft-willing IFC Midnight when it comes to spooky, international dramas. Focusing on a young teenager raised in a cult, “The Other Lamb” brings together a cast of faces you might have seen, but likely won’t have remembered, actors that will jump off the screen due to their almost-anonymity.
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Here’s the official synopsis:
For her entire life, the cult she was born into has been all that teenage Selah (Raffey Cassidy) has known. Along with a band of similarly cloistered young women she lives seemingly unstuck in time, cut off from modern society in a remote forest commune presided over by a man called Shepherd (Michiel Huisman), a controlling, messiah-like figure with a frightening dark side. But when her insular world is rocked by a series of nightmarish visions and disturbing revelations, Selah begins to question everything about her existence—including her allegiance to the increasingly dangerous Shepherd. Awash in images of primal, dreamlike dread, this provocative fable is a haunting vision of adolescent awakening and revolt.
Bringing together Michiel Huisman from “Game of Thrones” and Raffey Cassidy from “Killing of a Sacred Deer” shows that, more than likely, the film rests on actors that deserve larger roles and more screen-time. Though minor characters in the past, Huisman and Cassidy are primed for breakout roles, and from early positive reviews, they deliver in Szumowska’s film, one being praised for its atmosphere and visuals. The synopsis itself will likely bring a contingent of horror and thriller fans to the theater, and those early returns certainly will help the film get off the ground and into people’s minds at the time of release. If Szumowska’s reputation gives us anything to go on, moviegoers will be in for a delightful, maddening treat.
Starring Cassidy and Huisman, “The Other Lamb” will be released by IFC Midnight in New York and Los Angeles on April 3. You can watch the trailer below.