TIFF 2019 Review: The Other Lamb

Born into an all-female cult led by a charming and volatile male messiah figure, a girl starts to question the life that she is living.

On the verge of puberty, Selah is next in line to become another wife to Shepherd, a leader of a cult, and therefore bear him a child.  Initially, she is flattered by the attention but that changes upon uncovering the vicious nature of the leader.

Wannabe Grimm faerie tale, pretentious, and wooden acting are things that come to mind when watching the story unfold.  The imagery can be quite stunning as well as really heavy-handed with the symbolism and depiction of the menstrual cycle. The leader is a cross between Jesus and the Big Bad Wolf living out in the forest.  There is an effort to come across as being profound; however, in reality, it is shallow to the core. The closing line of the movie perfectly sums up what the audience has gone through but not in the way that filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska intended.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.