BERLINALE 2020 - Siberia
70th BERLINALE FILM FESTIVALDirector Abel Ferrara's sixth collaboration with actor Willem Dafoe in Siberia is a torturous, existential crisis existing as multiple indescribable and independent scenes put forward to create a nonsensical dream-like state with no rhyme or rhythm.
Ferrara's film is a vacant vessel. Having no context and no subtext, Siberia is crafted to evoke a tremendous emotional response from its imagery for the viewer to be utterly transfixed. However, unlike a feature built on similar ground such as Lars Von Trier's The House That Jack Built that works in its effectiveness due to a strong structure and palpable narrative, Siberia has neither a strong central performance or narrative to have the audience reeling or engaging with the material at hand.
From scene to scene, not only is it indecipherable on a narrative level but with each sequence revealing little to no bravado or gravitas, the viewer is left reeling at the thought of why their attention needs to be on this feature at all. Granted, Ferrara's film is contextually and intentionally crafted to be an enigmatic, surreal state but with that said, Siberia is plainly and painfully sliced together to be both incoherent and indigestible.
Even with the acting talent of Defoe at hand, Siberia fails to evolve into anything more than a dull, dire and flavourless drama. Gone is Ferrara's flair and style and in such a genre-infused dud, the director fails to even remotely tap into the range that Dafoe so expertly entails, leaving rampant and flat narration to lead this colossal failure to be forgotten.
