The rough, dirty life of Australian sheep farmers would seem an unlikely topic to yield much in the way of cinematic lyricism. Especially in a narrative involving sheep actually dying of a devastating disease. Nevertheless, “Rams,” rooted in a 2016 Icelandic movie of the same name, has its pastoral moments (mostly in its breathtaking views of Western Australian landscapes), not to mention raucous comedy.

The screenwriter Jules Duncan’s narrative, given a hemispheric switch from the Grimur Hákonarson original, is not generically unfamiliar. It’s a story of brothers at odds who are forced, after much resistance, to become brothers in arms.

Colin (Sam Neill), a taciturn type, shares land but not much else with his older brother, Les (Michael Caton), an angry type who’s more voluble than Colin only in that he likes to cuss people out. They live and work on two adjacent plots, which were once owned as one by their father. Their rams are of a special breed and, as a contest at the movie’s opening attests, are invariably the envy of the region.

Colin notices a problem with one of the prize specimens. A friendly local veterinarian (Miranda Richardson) confirms that there’s a rare but catastrophic disease at work. All the ovine beasts in the vicinity have to be liquidated, and the area quarantined for a couple of years.

Colin isn’t having it, and he secretes a few sheep in his house. Soon Les, with whom he hasn’t spoken in decades, gets wind of this — literally, as the odor increasingly attaches itself to and wafts from Colin’s place. Much of the movie’s comedy derives from Colin’s futile efforts to keep his animals hidden. And his new alliance with Les comes from what they need to do to keep those beasts alive.

Directed with a genial breeziness by Jeremy Sims, the movie negotiates emotional downshift and uplift with confidence. Some of the characterizations are unpredictably quirky — Les’s enthusiasm for the 1970s hard rock group Humble Pie is unexpected. The main pleasures of “Rams,” though, come from the watching the three veteran lead actors play their eccentricities out.

Rams

Rated PG-13. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters and on Apple TV, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.