Beards, sheep and brotherly hate: All in a day’s work for two ‘Rams’ actors

At the Palm Springs International Film Festival last month, the top actor prize went jointly to Sigurour Sigurjónsson and Theodór Júlíusson for their performances as estranged brothers in the quirky Icelandic comedy-drama “Rams.”

These two veteran Icelandic performers won the award for “the darkly comic urgency and sense of shared past with which they imbued their performances and for the graceful way in which they guided their characters from animosity to interdependence.”

Gummi (Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Júlíusson) are the ultimate grumpy old siblings with long, scraggly beards that would make the “Duck Dynasty” cast jealous. Gummi is sober, businesslike and has a social life. Kiddi is angry and frequently drunk.

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They live side by side in Búdardalur, a remote valley village in northwestern Iceland where they tend to their beloved sheep and share a border collie and equipment. They also haven’t talked in 40 years. But when a deadly disease arrives in the valley, the farmers are ordered to kill their sheep. The two brothers are not about to give up their herds without a fight and reunite to save the animals.

The two actors are not only good friends but have also worked together for years in film and theater. And “Rams” writer-director Grímur Hákonarson felt strongly that they could embody his characters.

“I chose them because they are very different, like the characters in the film,” he said. “They are different types mentally and physically.”

Neither actor had worked with Hákonarson before “Rams.”

“He sent me the script and said to me, ‘Siggi, my friend, read the script and stop shaving,”’ said Sigurjónsson. “I read the script and gave him a call after three hours. I said, ‘I’ve stopped shaving now.’”

In an email interview, Júlíusson noted that he was “happily working in the theater when the script arrived. I instantly fell in love with the story. I made myself free of other work to take part in ‘Rams.’ Icelandic films have not been so focused on this part of the Icelandic nation, the farmers and their difficult life. Strange, because it is such an important part of the nation’s industry.”

When Hákonarson began writing the script, he thought the brothers’ story was “typical for Icelandic people, because we are a bit stubborn, independent. We are an island. I thought the story represented some kind of national character.”

But the film has been embraced internationally — it was Iceland’s entry in the foreign language film Oscar derby and won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes last year.

During the production, the two actors shared a small cottage. “It was nice for us to talk to each other in the evening and then go to work in the morning and stop talking to each other,” noted Sigurjónsson. “ It helped to stay together. “

Hákonarson also wanted his actors to room together so they could relax after a grueling day’s shoot — in one scene, the actors are naked in minus-15 degree weather during a blinding blizzard.

“The film doesn’t have many characters,” said Hákonarson “It’s mainly these brothers. It was quite a big and challenging risk to play these brothers. They were dedicated. They were ready to do anything for me.”

Because the actors both live in the capital of Reykjavik, Hákonarson had them spend a lot of time with farmers and “let them learn how to get used to this agricultural life. I spent more time on this kind of practical rehearsal with sheep and animals than rehearsing the dialogue scenes.”

“Rams” was a rousing success when it premiered in Búdardalur.

“It was not really a cinema, but a small country theater, very primitive,” said Sigurjónsson. “It was touching. It was the right move to premiere the movie there.”

susan.king@latimes.com