Watch out for Joulupukki

We finally had the pleasure of watching Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale the other night and it was well worth the wait. Having heard about it a while ago, and having watched both of the shorts, I was anxiously awaiting it and had hoped to see it before Christmas. It wasn't however, until a few nights ago that we actually managed to procure a copy with decent sound and subtitles. What we saw was definitely one of the best movies to come out of 2010.

Jalmari Helander's Finnish film Rare Exports, based off two shorts that you must see here and here, is one of the best, most original stories I have seen in a film. It's a coming of age tale about a young, odd looking boy named Pietari, growing up in the Korvantunturi mountains of Lapland. It's a land of harsh winter and tough men, where the boys are expected to be men and where little Pietari struggles to connect with his gruff, reindeer slaughtering father.

24 days before Christmas, a group of American archaeological diggers uncover the frozen grave of the real Santa Claus, which is nothing close to what you've ever imagined him to be. They are given safety instructions which include "No drinking, smoking, cursing, loitering, cavorting or arguing. Any attempt to break these rules will result in death and/or the death of your co-workers." They of course, do not follow them. Pietari believes what he overhears at the dig site and does some investigating to find out more about Santa Claus. What he finds is disturbing; an evil, horned man that does terrible things to children, resembling the classic notion of Santa in no way. He now knows that Santa is dead and senses someone watching him every night. His suspicions grow greater when their annual reindeer ration is completely slaughtered before they can get to them and only he sees the ominous bare footprint of a man in the snow.

Jumping to Christmas day, Pietari and his father wake up to find something rather unexpected in their wolf trap; a very skinny, naked old man with a long white beard. The father, along with two other men, attempt to question the man, only to discover his rather violent side. Pietari tries to explain that he came to kidnap him and when they discover that the rest of the children in the town have gone missing, as well as all the radiators and potato sacks, they believe him and set out to find them. What they find is greater and more terrifying than they expected.


There is so much beauty in the way that this film was shot. It has such a whimsical, kids movie look to it, contrasted by all the creepy imagery. You get these stunning landscape shots that look far too beautiful to be real, with snow elegantly falling and a captivating score that makes the film feel all the more epic. I also appreciate the subtlety of the CGI used in the film. It's there only for the parts that truly need it and it ties in with the cinematography style quite nicely. The film also has a certain tensity about it because at a first watch, you really don't know if it's going to get violent or not. The creepiness of all those naked Santa helpers is actually quite intense and knowing what they're capable of, you never know when something terrible could happen. I particularly love the scene where they discover that their captive isn't Santa Claus, but just one of his helpers and then hundreds of them begin appearing out the dark, each more wild and grisly looking than the next, slowing creeping out at the them.


I also really appreciated the turn that Pietari's character took towards the end of the film. He starts out as this weird, kind of timid little kid that get's pushed around a lot by his older friend. When he realizes that he's the only one who knows what to do, he takes on this commanding role and is really quite sassy! It reminded us of how kids used to act in movies from the 80s, like The Monster Squad, where they were kind of tough, not afraid to swear and genuinely more accurate to how kids really are. He becomes this brave boy, calling out orders to his elders and willing to risk his life for everyone else, and to show his father that he's a man too.


It's a really beautiful story and there's just so much to it. It's a perfect mix of horror, comedy and childhood sentimentality and nostalgia. There's also a great quirkiness to it, especially in Pietari's case. Not only is he just an all around funny looking kid, but he walks around in the blistering cold in his little blue underpants and spends most of the movie wearing a helmet and shoulder pads over his snowsuit, carrying a shotgun. It's such a contrast to the monochromatic look of all the other characters, really setting him apart. I strongly believe that North American filmmakers need to take a good look at how movies are being made in Europe, especially around Scandinavia. We shouldn't be trying to recreate these beautiful films, we should be looking at what makes them so much more unique and generally just better. They have something figured out that we clearly haven't grasped, with a few exceptions. Jalmari Helander has created a fantastically creepy and enchanting new fairytale that I plan to add to my Christmas tradition.