In his attempt to film dreams, Abel Ferrara shows a nightmare. Although the images of Willem Dafoe in a remote and frozen place visited by characters he doesn't understand, are mysterious, the hallucinatory journey becomes confusing. Based on the active imagination that Carl Jung showed in "The red book," this representation of the dream world feels scattered and somehow more ordinary than it would have us believe.
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MiguelAReina17 January 2021
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aldiboronti14 December 2020And appropriately I fell asleep halfway through. I did wake up eventually and watch it all but only with a few cups of coffee to keep me going. I usually love Ferrara and thought I could watch Dafoe in anything. This tested that theory to destruction. Oh there are some excellent scenes but on the whole it's just so soporific. Maybe it's all that snow..............................
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Horst_In_Translation6 July 2020"Siberia" is a new 2020 movie and one of the first films shown here in my regular theaters after reopening after the COVID-19 pandemy. It runs for minimally over 90 minutes, so it is not a particularly long movie, but this should not really surprise anybody because the writer and director is American Abel Ferrara and he has made many films that are not too long. For this one here, he has collaborated again with Christ Zois, who helped Ferrara with the screenplay on many occasions. Bit despite Ferrara's origin, the United States are not one of the countries credited here in terms of the production. No less than four countries we have. Also from pretty different areas of the world if we look at Mexico. My country Germany is also one of them and this may at least partially explain why this film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival where it was also a nominee. Not a winner though and I can see why. I will get to that later. The lead actor here is Oscar nominee (will he ever win?) Willem Dafoe and he was basically also the only reason why I decided to check this film out at the cinema. Really like him a lot. Well, here he plays a man working at a pub far away from civilization because the pub is located in the area mentioned in the film's title. He likes his solitude, but still has customers here and there, just not too many and barely enough to keep him from going crazy. Or maybe he already did, who knows? It was really not clear in this movie. One thing I thought of though was that Dafoe starred in another film with focus on isolation not too long ago, the lighthouse movie next to Robert Pattinson and fittingly there was a trailer before this film here that showed us Pattinson briefly in Chris Nolan's new movie. But let's not drift too far away now. The lighthouse movie I just mentioned received a much better reception and will probably also be seen by many more people than this one here. But I am sure neither Ferrara nor Dafoe will be too mad about it. These two have worked together on many occasions already as I read and clearly they have become friends. Ferrara is even slightly older than dafor, who is not exactly a spring chicken anymore either. But it was his performance here that at least kept me slightly interested overall.
Like I said, this film felt very much style over substance. Early on, in the first half, we even have some kind of audio jump scare here and there, slightly video jump scare too occasionally, and luckily this was not thhe case in the second half anymore. There are many bizarre moments though that could have needed better elaboration, such as the scene with the fish at the very end. Or very early on, the scene with the guy who enters and is basically the protagonists doppelganger. The father-son theme wwas an interesting here, also how they included it with the shaving foam, but could have needed slightly better elaboration. Or the really pregnant woman who undresses inside the pub and then proceeds to have sex with the main character. Or the other unknown character who has some wisdom for Dafoe's character and immediately afterwards, the latter begins to sing and dance. Really catchy song by the way. I will catch up on that one and try to find it. Somehow it sounded familiar. So yeah, there are more bizarre moments and scenes like this, like for example the naked female freak show we get that felt like a nightmare. Dreams are certainly a very valid thing in this movie, although I am not sure they can explain anything that is going on here. Let alone everything. Another frequent inclusion here are female breasts really. Like naked female boobs. I guess this is why the film was shown this late. And again, it felt very much for the sake of it all, but not really making an impact whatsoever. Neither an artistic impact, nor an impact in terms of story telling. The weirdest moment was when at the end he has sex again, with an Asian I think and then she turns into a Black woman and then into the blonde he has been talking about before that. That dialogue was also a bit on the pretentious side and the actress there was really walking the fine line betwween nailing the part and overacting. She is also only included in this scene and not really known. just like almost everybody else except Dafoe. He is the one star here. The cast is also really diverse. Maybe, this explains the Mexico inclusion. Not sure. Most characters here speak Russian to Dafoe's character and he does not understand them. This, however, was intended like that and there are no subtitles for what they are saying. We are only supposed to understand the main character when he speaks English. And struggle together with him when it comes to understand everybody else. Then again, even if we had understood them, the story would not have been much clearer. I found it interesting that there was so much speaking in the form of a monologue and introduction voice-over from the central character right at the very start, but for the rest of the movie there was almost nothing. At least no long dialogues with the exception perhaps of the man who gets the "hero" to sing and dance, the one I mentioned earlier already. So yeah, I did not enjoy this film too much. Not enough for a positive recommendation. The beautiful snow landscapes were nice, but also could have been shown more often, but then again I feel it was much more about what was going on inside. Huskies rule though. So beautiful this special breed of dogs. It could be that this was the first collaboration between Ferrara and Dafoe (from five or six out there), but I must say the outcome here did not get me curious about the others, so I won't check them out any time soon. "Siberia" gets a thumbs-down from me. Not worth it, not even for my fellow Dafoe fans. Maybe only for hardcore Ferrara fans. He forgot thhe story and continuity here while coming up with one stylistic scene and shot after the next. Watch something else instead. -
MR-Katt15 December 2020Where to start this movie is totally nonsense just random scenes in random places with random dialogues all together leads to noweher ,and you will ask yourself what was the point of all this ..why did i waste time for a movie that has no begining and no end and nothing in between ? some say it's symbolic but of what exactly ? a dream ? sorry but my dreams makes more sense . the only attraction this movie used is the famouse willem dafoe sex scenes and plenty of nude women that is all in there nothing more . very empty movie that is just waste of time .
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lafebre-8030720 June 2021Love to have been at the meeting where Ferrara pitched this film and someone told him 'Go make it.' I love to say something about 'Siberia's' story but there isn't one. Well acted and I'd love to give it props for production but as far as I can tell it's just a lot of weirdness posing as something profound.
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I just watched it at Berlinale festival and liked it. Many people left the theatre during the film. For example when they saw a naked person or something they might not understand. Sure, it's not a Larry wants Harry to meet Barry film. I watched such horrible films. The last days. And this one was beautifully shot. People are not able anymore to just watch and try to understand. They need it all clear and dull. And as soon they see a naked woman they call it sexist, even when it's intention is the complete opposite. It's a philosophical film about life and relationships and also about the human nature and nature itself within its powers way beyond ours. It's episodically filmed with many layers. I'm so saddened about what I experienced around me in the cinema. Ferrara was always edgy and thank god he is. That's art. That's freedom of art. Unpleasant. My favorite film of the Berlinale so far.
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Alexander_Blanchett24 February 2020I am not going to say much About this film. Because there simply isnt much to say exccept for Willem Dafoe Walking through Scenes that makes no sense. Yes I understand its all symbolic, but this can be done SO much better, also technically. Its one of the worst films I have EVER seen on the Berlinale. A real shame for Willem Dafoe who I love dearly. Abel Ferrera really went to far with it. The only redeeming Quality are the fantastic nature shots and cinematography in General. Everything else is just really downright useless, forgetable and boring.
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urkus22 October 2022Siberia is art, in photography, in directing. People expect to watch a fiilm of good drama told by a mainstream artist. Those ones don't know Ferrara's universe. It's plenty poetry in it!
If you love Bela Tarr's movies or Tarkovskis, or LYNCH's you should watch that. Really powerful and intense poetic, don't try to find a plot, don't go and sit in front of it like you are watching a peaceful drama, because it is not. It is poetry, it has some stunning visuals, sound, OST, Willem Dafoe is allways a tremendous actor.
Run to watch it and you decide if you like it or not. But if you are finding a, plot and a "normal" Movie, avoid it.
Only for those ones who want to go more away than cinema can't (metafisic cinema). Really a cinematic experience, more in the way of MALICK. Really engagging to senses.
7 Stars out of 10. -
TruthSeeker4Life15 December 2020There is no flow to the movie. You will be seeing one scene which will all of a sudden switch to a completely different scene/situation and not understand what the heck is going on. Of course, all the flaws of the film will be covered up and excused because they will label it artistic. The art in this film reminds me the art where the artists has a canvas, paint, and throws the paint all over the canvas, which in the end is just paint blotters etc all over a canvas which is now worth 3 million dollars. The absurdity of this film, and the many others like it, where they just use art as a way to excuse their poor product really bothers me. I do not know what is wrong with William Dafoe, but he has been acting in some mega-dumb movies and just things that are really creepy. What was with him kissing on the pregnant woman's belly and grab her boobs while the grandma was there staring like it was some sort of semi-porn flick gone horribly wrong?!
IDK but if you choose to watch this load of donkey dung then all the luck to you! I can't believe I wasted my time watching this. The only thing that was good about the film was the scenery. Honestly! -
hannifroehlich1 March 2020I saw Siberia at the Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival) and man, let me put it like this - it definately was an experience. Dafoe once again does a great job and there are some beautiful shots of the landscape but what striked me the most was Ferrara's symbolism. Tho it's not at the level of Jodorowsky it leaves enough space for interpretation which makes this movie great to talk about afterwards. Personally I liked the second half of the movie better, maybe because it took some time to establish the mood or maybe it is because there barely are any dialogues in the first 20 minutes. I liked the film, it was an interesting (tho at times disturbing) watch. And yeah, the fish kills it.
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westsideschl21 August 2021Well, I'm not the dumbest chicken sitting in the middle of the road, but I'm not sure what I watched. Is our main character hallucinating from the isolation? Is he dead & somehow we're reliving his past (or maybe he is reliving his past & we're observers). Did this bar in the middle of nowhere burn down? If so, what happened?
If my mind needs exercise there are far more productive ways to accomplish that.
Nice scenery. -
kosmasp23 March 2020Abel Ferrara is not a director who makes movies that are easy. I had my issues with movies of his. They are not easy, some will call them art, others boring and/or annoying. Some will call them other things (this has quite a lot of nudity for example). One thing is for sure, this is not aiming to be easy to digest or just plain entertainment.
If you are aware of that and the fact that the movie goes back and forth, not just timeline wise, but also in the mind of the protagonist (hard to explain, but you'll get it). The movie also tries out many things - it is about aging outside while remaining young inside. It is about what we think is real and what actually is. There are many different layers to this and the movie is also about isolation.
So while I'm sure that more will dislike the movie (which is already apparent in the voting/rating) and how I rated it, if you watch this open minded and actualy watch it again - you'll discover a lot of things. I'm sure there is even more there than I did catch. -
Horror_Flick_Fanatic28 June 2021William Dafoe plays a man battling his demons of his parents and his past in a dreamy dark surrealism film. It's like a visual dark poetry where you don't take what's on the screen literally, but you try to interpret them. Much like you might interpret a nightmare to understand what it means.
This dream world is fascinating and disturbing. Just don't try to make literal understanding of it. It's an artsy fantasy-horror film.
The problem that I had with the film was the foreign language scenes that had no subtitles. I wanted to know what Dafoe, the indigenous man, and the Russian women were saying at his bar. I could not find subs for those non-english speaking parts so I felt I missed much of those scenes. Some of it you can infer by what happens on the screen, but I would have liked to understand the conversation.
Anyway, if artsy fantasy-horror films isn't your forte then this film might not be for you. But I do like these imaginary sublime worlds captured on film and go with it.
I have an appreciation for high creativity. It seems William Dafoe like making these kinds of films too. -
Tweetienator18 December 2020If my dreams would be that boring, I would simply stay awake till I get some real trippy stuff going on in my mind. Verdict: pseudo-artsy-intellectual movie that achieved mainly one emotion in my soul: boredom by torture (if this of course was/is the aim of writer and director, they did well). Some introspective scenes including some nudity and violence don't make something good by itself, and even Mr. Dafoe's acting skills could not save this movie for me - and I really like some of his more experimental and trippy movies like The Lighthouse (2019, also directed by Abel Ferrara) or Antichrist (2009, Lars von Trier).
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scotsdavy14 January 2021Sorry, but it started like watching paint dry. Then it jumped about to different scenes all the time and no explanation of what was going on. If you can't sleep at night, then watch this and you will soon drift off...
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wesleyvanauken21 July 2021Ok right off the bat I want to say that I love weird movies. I'm all about art house flicks. Jodorowsky doin' his thing is great. Dafoe in Antichrist was amazing. When a movie really has something to say, it can be very exciting to hear it in an abstract dreaming style. This is not one of those movies.
This is basically Dante's Inferno with all the political and religious satire stripped away then run through a wood chipper. On top of that the audio levels jump up and down all over the place from whispers you can barely hear to shouting and music that will deafen you.
I am so disappointed. This is trash.
I give 1 star for the cinematography and 1 star for Willem Dafoe. I don't think I'll be watching anything else by this director in the future. -
And so are stretches of the cinematography.
But that's not enough to drag out to 90 mintes.
Utter, incoherent, flamboyantly-self-important hogwash. Dear, dear Mr Dafoe needs to learn to say "No" sometimes.
Also: there is a comment here somewhere which credits the truly magnificent, thinking man's horror movie "The Lighthouse" to the egregiously overrated Abel Ferrara.
Nope! "The Lighthouse" was directed by Robert Eggers. -
Stanlee10718 December 2020What the hell did I just watch?! William Defoe carries this multi layered story. One could argue that this film may refer to him being in an inner hell or purgatory...
This poses so many questions that the writers do not spoon feed you the answers. That may be frustrating for some viewers that wants definitive answers but I suppose this is an art-y film. It is like the light house on drugs. Some will despise that but hey that is the only way I can accurately describe this film. -
kwenchow9 July 2021This film start with a man walking on the snow, and the main character "Clint" reading book at the bar scene! As turnout, this film is about a series of fantasy of a man(Clint) working as a bartender at Siberia! Entire film full of boring conversation, and annoying overuse scene! Such as, overuse of the walking scene, overuse of the searching scene, overuse of the hallucinate scene, overuse of the staring scene, overuse of the calling names scene, overuse of the riding with sled dog scene, overuse of the sleeping scene, overuse of the copulate scene, overuse of the long angle scenery scene, overuse of the eating scene, overuse of the dancing scene, overuse of the drinking scene, and overuse of the narration scene! Make the film unwatchable! At the end, Clint stare at the sky! That's it! Wasting time to watch!
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JuguAbraham3 January 2021Another personal film from Abel Ferrara, looking back at his past with real life wife and son in the film playing some characters--here as a Russian girl and his son, respectively (as in his earlier "Tommaso".) Siberia is a meta-film with hallucinations that resemble a horror film (which it definitely is not) with 5 huskies pulling his sled in snow in one sequence and accompanying him to a hot Sahelian desert oasis in another. Clint (Willem Dafoe) is once again Ferrara's alter ego searching for philosophical answers to his own life thus far from his family and practitioners of the "dark arts." The answer he gets from one of them is that he lacks compassion, and that he should forego reason. A fish that he ate to the bone the previous night outside his burnt abode in the snow becomes alive the next morning in the same pan. Ferrara seems to accept a larger force that defies reason. One of his best films so far for me.
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NickKnack685 July 2021Dafoe delivers another great performance, but despite some striking visuals this one is either complete weirdness for weirdness' sake or perhaps things will hit the viewer after some serious contemplation. The 90 minute running time seems twice as long. Was great to get back into the theater just wish this film wasn't soooo slooowwwww.
I think Ferrara was trying to channel Jodorowsky here. -
Opacus_Music22 June 2021I am utterly tired of the hordes of mindless drones constantly spewing the same hermetic cliched phrase over and over and over again... Its too artsy, its too artsy, its too artsy. Well guess what buddy? Its called the seventh art! Calling it too artsy is like calling an orange to orangy. You want brainless entertainment that doesn't challenge the mind in any way? Go to Six Flags and ride a roller-coaster pudding brain! Try opening your mind up to different and/or new things a little. You might actually learn to enjoy it without having to watch billions of dollars being thrown at a screen just to see the same recipes recycled over and over again. So this movie is metaphorical. If that bothers you, just turn around and go away. There's no point in trying to denigrate something just because it isn't within your grasp. As for the movie, did I like it? Not that much but it did make me think and reflect which I always appreciate from a movie and I admire those who dare to trie something different and more personal regardless of all the cowardly trolls hiding behind their smartphones and computers this new era rains down on everyone. The movie was spectacularly photographed and yes, it was weird. And if weird was bad. Then everyone would be in big trouble because guess what else? Unless you aren't human, YOU ARE WEIRD! So I'm giving this a 10 to counter all the undeserving negative reviews from the basements wannabe critics which, even dough I also am. I am at least decent enough to be aware of it and trie to have some humility when judging other people's art. But I'm not above judging those who judges. And I like art which is why I like that there are movies like this and I wish to encourage that.
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blackmamba9997124 December 2020Siberia is what a person would call the last bastion of a human attempt to understand what the human condition really means. Abel Ferrara who directed this film gave us a concept of what would happen to an individual if he or she decided to live in the most remote regions in an unforgiving country. Willem Dafoe played such a man whose past life was marred with bad memories that seemed to squeeze into his concept of reality.
Each scene from start to finish were riddled with allegorical statements on whether or not he should have stayed back in america to move on with his life, or stay in Siberia to experience more of what his dream like visions had to offer. Each character had a life of its own permeating with his flashes of either horror, or joy, sadness and regret, which he abhorred the most.
What was most constant was that Abel described on how every character seemed to cohesively interact with one another as if by instinct. That no matter how trivial or complicated a vision would get, Dafoe's character seemed to allow every person a say in his quest or that they somehow needed to express their own opinion in various ways to help his understanding on why he needs to move on with his life rather than sink even further into madness.
Siberia to me is a unique film. Filled with emotions on different levels, with nudity which all humans experience in dreams, and nouveau like captures that we try to comprehend as fantastical elements. Dreams are never the same. They tend to twist, bind, release and startle the dreamer to the point of jolting themselves awake but can never remember what the dream actually was.
Aside from Siberia, another movie The Cell starring Jennifer Lopez, this film came close to that but without all of the ritzy sets, and lavish costumes. Siberia was meant to be harsh, rugged, visceral as well as creating an abundance of uncertainty. I give it seven out of ten stars for creativity, locations, theme and original concept. On the downside, even though it was entertaining to see what would happen next, the film had me lose grip on the story.
There was no objective to Dafoe's character. Did he leave Siberia? Did he stay further on? Would there be closure to his past rather than staring up into a grey stormy sky at the end? No one would know. Maybe that's what Abel was pushing for but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that there was nothing except a possible decision on Dafoe's character to go home or stay and rebuild the backwoods tavern again.for those lonely neighbours who come by using dogsleds. -
Ckn4812 January 2022The sets and scene design are as good as any based on the plot.
The Plot is Boring 😴
The sound is ok The Photography is ok The Acting is ok
Not worth bothering 👎