Continuity mistake: After the male elder jumps off the cliff, there is a string used to tie his collar shown on his clothes when he is on the ground. The string is on the right side of his chest when he lands, but when his head gets smashed with a mallet seconds later, the string is on the left side of his chest. (01:11:40 - 01:12:35)
Continuity mistake: When Dani is looking at the photos of the commune, as Pelle says "we make those clothes special for every winter and summer solstice", he is holding the phone and begins to bend his thumb. In the next shot, his thumb is straightened with no bend. (00:23:30)
Answer: It's actually a boy named Ruben. It's alluded to him being disfigured due to being the product of incest. In the context of the movie, Ruben is supposed to be an "oracle" who comes up with sacred scriptures, runes, etc. From what I understand, due to his deformities and cognitive disabilities, he's considered to be less "constrained" by typical mental/emotional limitations, and thus more open-minded spiritually. (Basically, they believe that because he's so simple-minded and childlike, he's open-minded enough to able to communicate with higher powers).
TedStixon