Siberia

Another 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.

Went into this film blind and when it was over it left me wanting more. What a hidden gem of a film. Such a unique way to shoot some of the scenes. From where it starts to where it takes you is a disturbing and chilling ride which challenges your own humanity.

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.

What 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.