![]() ![]() Malgorzata Szumowska’s THE OTHER LAMB | Courtesy of IFC Films. A part of your mind has been hobbled, the part that is your ability to make your own choices. You are no longer sure that you can survive without them or that life outside of the cult really exists. When all else fails, they use fear and physical abuse to keep you there. They draw you in with love, make you dependent on them, and convince you that the outside world is bad. The part of their personality and will that would normally refuse to accept such abuse has been broken and perverted by the techniques that such leaders use. It answers the question of why abused wives and children or cult members don’t just leave. She goes from a self-satisfied favorite to a wary and rebellious foe, but the film and its characterization of Selah and Sarah, the “Cursed wife” – who is confined to a hut where menstruating women are sent because they are believed to be unclean, show that a cult leader has the kind of control over a person’s mind that they no longer know anything but the cult and don’t have the courage or the will to leave because of the methods of control the Shepard has used on them. It does this through the eyes of Selah who is quite clearly feeling devoted admiration and lust for the Shepard herself. It takes a while to slowly start peeling the layers of Shepard’s lies and his remorseless methods of control. This is a character study that is focused on the everyday life of a group of women who are completely brainwashed. When I say it is sedately paced, I don’t mean that in a bad way. The film and the script do a very good job of exploring what it might be like to be part of a religious cult and what kind of manipulation and fear goes into binding human beings to a cult in the first place. ![]() The script was on both the Black List and The Blood List, so it is well regarded and for good reason. THE OTHER LAMB is directed by Małgorzata Szumowska from a script by C.S. Ultimately, the Shepard is revealed to be a manipulative and cruel abuser and one Daughter, Selah, tries to deal with her feelings of desire for the Shepard and her growing disillusionment with who he really is and her life in the cult. As with most cults, the Shepard is first seen as a charismatic and loving Christ-like figure and the girls and women are dutiful and happy. The younger women, mostly teenage girls and one child, are dressed in an aquamarine blue and called Daughters. Yes, they are called Wives for exactly the reason you suspect they are as the sect is polygamous. The adult women are dressed in red dresses, shades of The Handmaid’s Tale, and are called Wives. THE OTHER LAMB is a sedately paced horror film about an unnamed religious cult lead by the Shepard, a man who wields complete control over a small group of women. ![]()
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