Dome Karukoski’s “Little Siberia” (Original title: Pikku-Siperia, 2025) is a Finnish black comedy about punishment and forgiveness, the cycle of redemption that feels particularly hard-earned yet elusive. Characters lie, swindle, and manipulate each other, all for a shred of happiness, and better prospects that seem impossibly out of reach in their tiny town. Everyone knows each other, secrets can’t be stowed away in the dark for too long. The gloves are off and this is what the film searches through, angling for salvation in characters hopelessly lost and wretched.
Touted as Netflix’s first Finnish original, you can’t help thinking if it couldn’t have been funnier or grimmer, it never quite hits the desired tragicomic balance, since characters themselves come off as prototypes, saddled with clunky lines. The protagonist’s hangdog demeanour too doesn’t help matters; it gets tiring to watch him grumble and whine constantly.
Little Siberia (Pikku-Siperia, 2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Set in the isolated Finnish town of Hurmevaara, the plot erupts when a meteorite plummets into the car of a former rally driver, Tarvainen. He’s been jaded, disillusioned, nursing the death of his friend and praying for a miracle. He feels the meteorite is his glimmer of hope. But he’s not allowed to have it. The local museum head Jukkis puts it on sale. There would be a considerable surge in the economy of the town. Till the sale happens, the local pastor Joel (Eero Ritala) is asked to be on night guard. He’s initially balking but ultimately accepts the proposal.
Of course, numerous impediments pockmark the night duty service. The meteorite rumored to attract lavish pricing has the entire town in a tizzy of greed and envy. All eyes are locked on it, some overtly scheming, others quiet in their ambitions and desires to bring it into their possession. Joel is undergoing his own personal, existential trial. He’s been grappling with questions of faith and belief for a while. So he’s not quite the anchor people expect him to be. He himself is terribly lost and unsure and doubting. When his doctors tell him he can’t have a biological child because of impotence, he gets further cynical and suspicious of his wife’s sudden pregnancy. He suspects her to be in an affair. A chunk of the film goes into him harboring inklings about several men with whom she, Krista, maybe in an affair.
The distance between the couple keeps growing. Several plot developments snowball with urgency and haste, expediting the course of the narrative and introducing multiple stakeholders in the game. Joel comes to discover a bunch of Russians who have their eyes set on the meteorite as their way to prosperity, a well-padded life.
Meanwhile, he has a bit of a crush on one of them, the bartender Karolina. Joel ends up in a scuffle with Mikis, who attempts to steal the meteorite but Joel’s past army experiences stand him in good stead. He ends up killing Mikis. There’s considerable confusion over the incident which Joel struggles to clarify. The fact is he’s not quite a solid narrator of events, even those that happened to him.
Who tries to steal the meteorite?
So his story isn’t given much credence. But dangers don’t end for him then and there. There are way too many he has to confront and endure and weather, which becomes a rite of passage. They are tied to his own personal journey with his expectant wife. The two are enmeshed. Several pieces of the puzzle start swiftly falling into place. Joel meets Petar at the church, who turns out to be Mikis’ partner.
It further gets complicated as we discover Petar is Karolina’s boyfriend. Karolina herself is much smarter than she lets on. Joel becomes a pawn in her elaborate plot, suffering a lot for succumbing to her charms and revealing more than he ought to have. But can he be truly blamed for the mess? The film doesn’t seem willing to castigate and judge him harshly, condoning much of his reckless desperation to nab who her wife is cheating on him with.
Karolina confides in Joel the plan of robbing the meteorite. She has put the man at the gym, Raystainen, to use. She tells him they can scapegoat him. However, plans go awry as Joe ends up nabbing Petar instead. Joel follows a surprise burglar, Tarvainen, who breaks in and scampers off with the meteorite. There’s a heated scuffle, resulting in Joel being stabbed with a knife. Yet, Joel gathers all his energy and chases him in the middle of the chilly night, the latter ultimately sinking into the icy water of the frozen lake, taking the meteorite shard with him. What was the mess all for?
Little Siberia (Pikku-Siperia, 2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Who gets the meteorite?
Karolina had foreseen her plan going wrong so she made plans also to kidnap Krista. The tension of the situation escalates. Which side will prevail? Karolina shouts at Joel to hand over the bag, only then will Krista be let off. It’s then, in a moment of deep vulnerability, Joel declares in an impassioned fit his abiding love for Krista. The tense situation finds a romantic reconciliation between the couple, doubts and suspicion fading away, nipped at the bud, supplanted with renewed trust and a commitment to the baby, the new chapter it signifies in their journey of togetherness.
You’ve to consider the leap of faith as Joel also manages to prevail over Karolina, shooting her in the process. The meteorite itself remains lost, buried deep in the lake, soon to be forgotten as if it had never dropped on the town. The closing chapter establishes Joel and Krista’s contentment in their parenthood. Whether Krista had cheated on him as he was sterile ceases to be a consideration. The film’s underlying message is to trust in the sudden miracle that can reassemble your life and bring a spurt of joy and vitality you thought was completely lost, never to be retrieved. There’s optimism in the ending, a reaffirmation of new beginnings, a desisting from skepticism.
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