Little Pietari doesn’t want a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. He’s already got a shotgun that’s meant to keep wolves at bay.
Christmastime usually means setting aside some time for watching your favorite holiday movies. For some, It’s a Wonderful Life, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or Elf will do the trick. Others may go for Love, Actually, Four Christmases, or even Die Hard if they’re among those that consider it a Christmas movie. However, for those looking to really shake things up this year, I recommend Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale.
Rare Exports is a Finnish film, written and directed by Jalmari Helander, that takes place in a small town north of the Arctic Circle near the border of Finland and Russia. An American corporation is conducting what they’re calling “seismic research” on the mountain next to the village. When the villagers discover that the reindeer that they depend on for food have been slaughtered, they blame the Americans for stirring up the local wolf population. The real culprit is actually somewhat more bizarre.
The Americans are excavating what they believe to be the burial site of Santa Claus. And, according to regional legends, the real Santa Claus is much less jovial than the “Coca Cola Santa Claus” found in global popular culture. The real Santa would punish naughty children by boiling them alive in a cauldron. It’s said that he was buried under the mountain by the Laplandic people to prevent him from doing any more harm.
Local boy Pietari (Onni Tommila) discovers the truth about Santa and tries to warn his father (Jorma Tommila) that wolves aren’t the problem. It’s up to Pietari to convince his father and a few of his friends that Santa Claus is real, evil, and not likely to drop off presents during his Christmas visit.
I enjoyed that Rare Exports comically subverts the typical holiday film checklist. The reindeer featured here are a source of food for the townsfolk. Santa Claus chews off a man’s ear. Little Pietari doesn’t want a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. He’s already got a shotgun that’s meant to keep wolves at bay. There are no cheesy romantic interludes either. In fact, not a single female character appears in the film.
Taking a few cues from John Carpenter’s The Thing, Rare Exports is the perfect Christmas movie to watch when you’ve had enough of the usual saccharine holiday fare.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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