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Siberia
Italy / Germany / Greece / Mexico 2020
produced by Julio Chavezmontes, Marta Donzelli, Philipp Kreuzer, Gregorio Paonessa, Diana Phillips, Jörg Schulze, Alessandro Del Vigna (executive), Christos V. Konstantakopoulos (executive), Alessio Lazzareschi (executive), Regina Solórzano (executive), Michael Weber (executive) for Vivo Film, RAI, Maze Pictures, Piano, Faliro House Productions, Rimsky Productions, Talipot Studio, CTT, Bavaria
directed by Abel Ferrara
starring Willem Dafoe, Dounia Sichov, Simon McBurney, Cristina Chiriac, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Fabio Pagano, Anna Ferrara, Phil Neilson, Laurent Arnatsiaq, Valentina Rozumenko, Trish Osmond, Stella Pecollo
written by Abel Ferrara, Christ Zois, music by Joe Delia
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Clint (Willem Dafoe) runs a trading post somewhere in the Arctic,
mostly serving liquor to his Inuit customers whom he might not understand
and who might not understand him. And during his time off, he enjoys
exploring the countryside in his dog sledge - but that might not even be
true but a childhood memory. And soon all reality begins crumbling down,
as the exernal snow he witnesses might actually be the Sahara desert, he
might actually just be your ordinary husband and father - but then during
sex his wife (Dounia Sichov) turns into his mother. And he might not be
married at all but an old Russian woman (Vantentina Rozumenko) might try
to force her pregnant daughter (Cristina Chiriac) onto him for a green
card, he might be in a prison camp, but it's not clear whether as prisoner
or warden, or there are a myriad other things that might be true, because
even when the film returns to the Arctic - the film's percieved
"reality" - not all is as it seems, like dying fish being able
to talk ... Now ok, if you don't understand what this film is
about, then you're not alone, and it's doubtful that even Abel Ferrara can
make perfect sense of it (at least he admitted as much in a personal
appearance), as it's not a film that follows narrative conventions, it's
(according to Abel Ferrara) more of a psychogram of his friend and
across-the-street neighbour Willem Dafoe following the lead of C.G. Jung
and especially his Red Book - but not so that you'd know it, as the
film is very phantasmagorical, rather (seemingly) randomly jumps between
layers of reality, and has a very associative feel to it. But thanks to
Dafoe's strong central performance and a solid directorial effort by
Ferrara, the whole thing still makes some sense and is above all else a
joy to watch, even if one doesn't get even half of the allusions
presented. That said though, if you insist on narrative coherency, this
movie might not be your thing ...
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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