Winter in the Northern Hemisphere is dark and cold. In the northern reaches of the Northern Hemisphere it's even darker and colder, until you get to the Arctic Circle where the sun doesn't rise for months. Much of Finland is above the Arctic Circle and light is in very short supply. So, it's kind of difficult to be cheerful during the Christmas season. 'Rare Exports,' a holiday season film from Northern Finland is a perfect example of the doom and gloom that can arise in an environment bereft of sunlight and warmth. Instead of Santa being the jolly, overweight bearer of gifts and joy for children, he is an otherworldly kidnapper and punisher of children, good or bad. Instead of toy making little elves, his minions are zombie-like, scrawny, old men. Santa is a doom bringer akin to the boogie man.
To protect their children, the inhabitants of the reindeer-roaming Korvatunturi mountains long ago captured this evil doer and buried him in a man-made mountain of ice and earth. Today's archeological team searches for, finds and digs him up. What ensues is a battle between reindeer herding men and an ancient evil presence replete with fireworks, explosions, near death helicopter rides in a climactic chase.
What strikes one about this film is the serious attitude taken by filmmaker Helander and the cast. This film is more like 'The Thing ' (1951) in its sense of drama and darkness than a holiday movie. On its surface, it's a horror movie in which a resourceful child, his father and neighbors fight to save the lives of the children kidnapped by a supernatural force. It's not played for laughs, but it is hysterical. Don't expect to be fed jokes; the humor is in the situation, not pratfalls and yuks. You might want to warn your children that this new (to your children, not northern Europeans) view of St. Nick is not appealing, but a nice mixture of horror and ethnography. This is just how some old world historians view Santa, so keep the cookies and milk near the fireplace for a gift bearing visitor on Christmas Eve just in case they're wrong.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Director / Writer: Jalmari Helander
Cast: Onni Tommila, Jorma Trommila, Ilmari Jarvenpaa, Per Christian Ellefsen
Time: 80 min.
Opening December 17 at the Lumiere Theatre in San Francisco, and Shattuck in Berkeley
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