''Siberia'' is a 2018 thriller film directed by Matthew Ross and written by

Scott B. Smith Scott Bechtel Smith (born July 13, 1965) is an American author and screenwriter. He has written two novels, ''A Simple Plan (novel), A Simple Plan'' (1993) and ''The Ruins (novel), The Ruins'' (2006). Both were adapted into films - ''A Simple Pl ...

from a story by Stephen Hamel. It stars

Keanu Reeves Keanu Charles Reeves ( ; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, Reeves began acting in theatre productions and in television films before making his feature film debut in '' Youngblood'' (1986). ...

Ana Ularu Ana Ularu (born 26 June 1985) is a Romanian actress. Biography She is known for playing the role of Matilda in '' Outbound'' and West in ''Emerald City The Emerald City (sometimes called the City of Emeralds) is the capital city of the ficti ...

Pasha D. Lychnikoff Pavel Dmitriyevich Lychnikov ( rus, Павел Дмитриевич Лычников) is a Russian-American television, voice, film and theatre actor, who lives and works in the United States. Early life and education Lychnikoff was born in Mos ...

and

Molly Ringwald Molly Kathleen Ringwald (born February 18, 1968) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. She was cast in her first major role as Molly in the NBC sitcom '' The Facts of Life'' (1979–80) after a casting director saw her playing an or ...

Plot

American diamond merchant Lucas Hill travels to Russia to sell rare

blue diamond Blue diamond is a type of diamond which exhibits all of the same inherent properties of the mineral except with the additional element of blue color in the stone. They are colored blue by trace amounts of boron that contaminate the crystalline l ...

s to gangster Boris Volkov. However, his contact in St. Petersburg, Pyotr who had the diamonds has gone missing. Boris threatens Lucas to deliver the diamonds in 48 hours. Following Pyotr's clues, Lucas arrives at a guest house in Mirny, Siberia. He contacts his wife Gabby through Skype. He goes to a cafe and starts a fight with two men and the cafe owner Katya saves him. Later, her brother Ivan suspects her of sleeping with Lucas, so she asks him to sleep with her. Lucas meets Pyotr's brother Andrei who tells him that Pyotr sold counterfeit diamonds to a man named Samsonov and hid the real ones. Enraged, Lucas goes to Katya's home. They start a passionate affair. Lucas also goes bear hunting with Ivan and Katya's other brothers. Lucas earns Ivan's respect when Lucas puts Ivan's dog out of its misery after accidentally being shot by Ivan’s brother. Lucas is contacted by Vincent but he turns him off. Lucas returns to Pyotr's apartment in St. Petersburg to search again for the diamonds, and finds one (in a candle) that is real. Remembering a similar candle in the Mirny guest house, he calls Katya to bring it to him, finding another diamond inside, which is a fake. Lucas meets Boris, along with Katya to show the real diamond promising him to return with the rest later. To solidify their deal, Boris demands a ritual of brotherhood where Boris’s woman services Lucas and Lucas' woman (Katya) services Boris. Reluctant at first, Lucas agrees when Boris convinces Katya that refusal of such an offer is deadly, so she tells Lucas to agree. Returning to his hotel, Lucas is met by FSB agents, who arrested Samsonov, to make Lucas sell the fake diamonds, which Pyotr had sold to Samsonov, to Boris and get the money to the agents. In return, they promise him safe passage to home. Lucas and the FSB know that once Boris finds out, he will kill his wife and Katya and Lucas won't hide long. Lucas manages to convince Boris to buy the diamonds and wire the money to the agents' account, but he gets a warning from Boris' henchman Pavel of the consequences if he is betraying him. Pyotr's brother Andrei tells Lucas where to find Pyotr hiding in Siberia. With help from Katya's brother, Ivan, and Katya tagging along, Lucas goes there and he and Ivan find Pyotr dead and no way to retrieve the real diamonds. Lucas promises to meet Katya the next morning, while Ivan lends him his Mosin-Nagant hunting rifle, knowing that there is no other way this could end but violently with Boris's henchmen. Pavel and a few henchmen find Lucas at the place. Lucas shoots and kills some of the henchmen while trying to escape, but he gets shot by Pavel in the back and dies.

Cast

as Lucas Hill *

as Katya *

as Boris Volkov *

as Gabby Hill *

Rafael Petardi Rafael Petardi is a Canadian-American film and television actor. Career Petardi's first major role was in a mini series alongside Québécois stars Remy Girard, Gildor Roy, Michel Barette, Patrick Labbe and Chantal Fontaine. He has also st ...

as Pavel *

Aleks Paunovic Aleks Paunovic (born June 29, 1969) is a Canadian actor. Paunovic is from Winnipeg, Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's ...

as Yefrem * Boris Gulyarin as Pyotr * Ashley St. George as Christa * Taran Vitt as Lio

Production

In February 2017, it was announced

had been cast in the film, with Matthew Ross directing from a screenplay by

. Stephen Hamel, Reeves, and Gabriela Bacher will produce the film under their Company Films, Summerstorm Productions banners respectively. In April 2017,

, and

joined the cast of the film. Production began in May 2017. Some scenes have been filmed in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

; Siberian scenes have also been filmed in

Manitoba, Canada , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

, including the small towns of Cooks Creek and Marquette.

Release

In May 2018,

Saban Films Saban Capital Group LLC is an American investment firm based in Los Angeles, California focused on media, entertainment, and communications investments. Formed in 2010 by Haim Saban, Saban Capital Group owns Saban Films, part of Univision Commun ...

acquired distribution rights to the film. It had a limited domestically released in theaters on July 13, 2018, worldwide on July 20, 2018, and on VOD by

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered in ...

on September 18, 2018.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 34 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Siberia English-language Canadian films 2010s Russian-language films 2018 crime thriller films Canadian crime thriller films Canadian romantic thriller films Saban Films films Films set in Russia American crime thriller films American romantic thriller films 2010s romantic thriller films Works by Scott Smith 2010s Canadian films 2010s American films Canadian gangster films