Day 7. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

Rare Exports (2010) takes an overused bad idea (the Christmas movie where Santa Claus is a killer) and transforms it into a good one. It's not explicitly a horror film, but fits the mould of the literary "weird tale." It hints at intriguing big concepts that are never indulged, while the actual narrative is pared down, efficient and odd.

Near the beginning of the movie, pre-teen Pietari (Onni Tommila) is teased by his friend Juuso (Ilmari Jarvenpa) for believing in Santa. There's an American scientific excavation happening near the two kids' Finland village. It's to retrieve something that's been buried for centuries within Korvatunturi Mountain. Pietari is convinced it's to unearth the body of Santa Claus. He reads about the true Santa Claus later that night, and discovers that he wasn't a kind man at all. He punished the naughty without rewarding the nice. 

Indeed, after the corpse is excavated, the other children of the village are stolen in their sleep, their bodies replaced with life-size dolls. I guess that makes Santa like a malevolent Tooth Fairy who ain't gonna settle for one stupid tooth. 

Filmmaker Jalmari Helander, who expanded the story from his popular online short films, creates a fascinating inversion of the Santa Claus Lie. It's not an issue whether Santa Claus exists. It's whether he's even on your side. The people of this village don't have much beyond each other. The men work as reindeer-herders, and their business suffers drastically from the environmental mess caused by the scientists. They don't have wives, because who can afford such luxuries, and because this is also a cheeky statement on men and war. There isn't a single female in this entire film. Pietari leaves behind childish things, joins the battle against an elderly army of frontally nude Santa's Helpers, and becomes a man. It's the only way his father (played by Onni's real-life dad, Jorma Tomilla) will stop looking at him with such disappointment. 

(This movie probably has the most running-crowd-of-old-men-nudity since EuroTrip, which is not a value judgement. I just haven't yet heard that point made by Leonard Maltin or other film historians.) 

On its simple bizarre level, Rare Exports plays as shallow, albeit clever, fun. On another, it's about Finland reclaiming the Santa Claus myth from popular co-option, a commentary on American Imperialism that sneakily switches the object of parody from hordes of interchangeable commercialized Santas to torturing Gitmo heroes. 

A hockey helmet. Why wasn't this in every Canadian multiplex?

Again, these issues are not addressed to satisfaction, and attentive viewers might like the film to explain itself. It just doesn't care to. It's better and stranger for that, and if you want an alien-action film to force feed messages on global relations, there's always District 9. In the best weird tale tradition, Rare Exports plays as a process of discovery, gradually revealing itself, when most movies have laid out their entire game plan within thirty minutes. Rare Exports gets away with a lot because its tone is off-kilter and funny.

The attraction here is a fantastical enactment of a cultural war on Santa Claus told through the personal prism of a father-son story. It's been described as an '80s Spielberg throwback by people who obviously haven't studied Spielberg. Or possibly Helander actually was trying to counter his dark elements with childhood dreaming and missed that target completely. Figuring out what Rare Exports isn't leads nowhere. Take it for what it is: an alternative Christmas ornament for those who wish holiday entertainment would dare to be less traditional.

The Meaning of Christmas

This movie is about a literal War on Christmas, which is something certain Republican politicians complain about, but I think they mean it in a more figurative sense.  

Rare Exports wants to give Finland its props for Santa Claus, and in a way it deserves them. In Finnish folklore, the fell of Korvatunturi is the home of Father Christmas. From high up on it, he can hear all the children of the world. Letters sent to his listed postal code are actually taken to Finland's Santa Claus amusement park called Santa Claus Village. That calls his true existence into question, but does mean that Finland is really hardcore about its Santa Claus myth. 

Tomorrow: Prancer