Yared Zeleke’s Lamb was the first Ethiopian film ever selected for Cannes’ Official Selection, and with good reason. Set against the breathtaking yet harsh highlands of Ethiopia, the film offers a quiet, tender portrayal of childhood amid displacement — a story where a young boy’s love for his lamb becomes a metaphor for home, memory, and survival.

Movie Details	Lamb
Country	Ethiopia
Year	2015
Genre	Drama
Runtime	94 min
Director	Yared Zeleke
Main Actors	Rediat Amare, Kidist Siyum, Welela Assefa, Indris Mohammed

The protagonist, Ephraim, is sent from the drought-stricken south to live with distant relatives after his mother’s death. His only companion is his lamb, Chuni, a symbol of continuity in a world reshaped by loss. The film’s narrative unfolds slowly, allowing space for the land, the silence, and the gestures of everyday life to speak as much as dialogue. Zeleke crafts his story through a lens that is both ethnographic and deeply emotional: Ethiopia is not an exotic backdrop, but a living character — vast, fragile, and profoundly human.

What makes Lamb exceptional is its delicate balance between the universal and the specific. It’s a film about childhood and grief, but also about belonging in a place defined by migration, gender roles, and social expectations. Ephraim’s struggle to protect his lamb from being sacrificed for a family feast mirrors his own quiet resistance against a fate dictated by adults and tradition. This metaphor — so simple, yet so powerful — turns Lamb into an allegory of survival through tenderness.

Cinematographer Josée Deshaies captures the Ethiopian landscape with rare intimacy. Her camera lingers on the contrasts: the golden light over the mountains, the dust rising from the earth, the deep blues of twilight. Every frame feels painted in natural hues, grounding the film in both realism and myth. The result is visually lyrical but never sentimental — the world seen through Ephraim’s eyes is full of wonder and danger, beauty and uncertainty.

Zeleke’s direction stands out for its empathy and restraint. He avoids melodrama, trusting silence, glances, and gestures to carry emotional weight. In doing so, he creates a film that speaks softly yet lingers long after it ends — a portrait of rural life told with dignity, respect, and an uncommon grace.

Lamb received critical acclaim across international festivals — including Cannes (Un Certain Regard) and numerous regional awards — marking a milestone for Ethiopian cinema and setting a precedent for African storytelling within the global art-house landscape.

Ultimately, Lamb is less about loss than about resilience. It reminds us that tenderness, like the bond between a boy and his lamb, can become an act of quiet defiance — a way of preserving humanity when everything else seems to fade.