Siberia (2000) - Synopsis

Siberia (2000)

Hugo (Hugo Metsers) and Goof (Roeland Femhout) are best friends and roommates, living in the old city centre of Amsterdam. "Work" is a four-letter word; instead, they prefer hanging out at the train station, picking up female backpackers newly arrived from foreign parts. Hugo and Goof are complete opposites - Hugo, quick-witted and good-looking, Goof, charming but rather dim - they make a perfect combination. Their game works according to a set of rules designed by Hugo, which Goof, as a willing pupil, follows.

One of these rules, as we discover during the opening scene of the film, is that the boys never stay long with the girls they spend the night with. They wake up early and go surreptitiously for the girls' moneybelts- the amount of cash they steal corresponds with the amount of sympathy they feel for their victims. Hugo and Goof also take a memento: a page ripped out of a passport showing the picture and nationality of the girl. Finally, to avoid leaving a trail of snapshots taken of them earlier, they snatch the girls' cameras as well. At home the friends pin the passport pages onto a cupboard-door, and the stolen money is saved in a Statue of the Holy Virgin of the Travellers. They've agreed that one day they'll do something nice with their savings; it doesn't really matter what that something is, just as long as they both like it.

Hugo, who has been hurt in love before, rationalizes his childish and unpleasant behaviour by stating that it's dangerous to get seriously involved with women. By robbing the girls of their money and nationalities, he avoids any possibility of lasting romance. Kind-hearted Goof has never had much luck with the opposite sex, so he is eager to learn some of Hugo's tricks.

The central station hall is a good place to pick up girls. The boys keep a selection of shopping bags from all major European cities in a station locker, so when a train arrives from Paris, they take a "Galeries Lafayette" bag and fill it with nondescript souvenirs. At the international arrivals platform they ask Kristy (Nicole Eggert), if she has by any chance left a bag on the train. The answer is of course no, but when Kristy's friend Lara (Vlatka Simac) realises that this 'unattended' bag may end up in 'Lost Property', she immediately claims it as her own.

Goof finds the way Lara has outsmarted them quite funny, but Hugo doesn't like to be beaten. Worse, that same night, while Hugo is busy robbing Kristy, Goof invites Lara to stay at their apartment. Hugo tries to get the interloper out of the house, but doesn't succeed. Lara, being a seasoned and penniless traveller, simply enjoys her new home for as long as it will last. As she later tells Hugo, she likes both "nice boys" and "fuckboys".

Nice boy Goof falls madly in love with Lara. He tries to follow her advice to not let himself be bullied so much by Hugo. When Lara tells Goof about the beautiful country of her childhood, Siberia, he desperately wants to take her there - he asks Hugo to split the stolen money between them. Now he wants to go to Siberia instead of chasing after women.

Hugo does not want to share the money and suggests a bet: whoever collects 15 passport pages from girls of different nationalities first, gets the whole lot. Goof accepts the challenge for Lara's sake, but when he picks up on his life of chasing innocent tourists, fuckboy Hugo starts seeing Lara with different eyes. A complicated menage a trois ensues, in which Goof doesn't appear to see what's going on between his best friend and the new love of his life.

The situation gets out of hand when Hugo begins to feel guilty towards his friend and forces Lara out of the house. What he hadn't counted on was her taking the money with her. When a broken-hearted Goof finds out that Lara has taken refuge in a local youth hostel, "Freddy's Peace Hotel", he decides to at least get the money back. He allows Hugo to go with him, on condition that it is now he, Goof, who sets the rules.

In a final confrontation at Freddy's Peace Hotel, Goof proves that he is not as stupid as he seems. Taking the stolen money and his revenge, Goof ends up where he wanted to go: Siberia. An unexpected companion follows him.