Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

For most of you that know me well, you know that my taste for Christmas movies runs the lines of "Die Hard' and "Lethal Weapon." Both take place during Christmas, have plenty of action, and for me are great "feel good" movies. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy movies like " The Man Who Came to Dinner," "It's a Wonderful Life," and "A Christmas Story" but they just don't get me going as much as the others. I was messing around on Netflix's last week and came across an amazing little film from Finland that is now one of my new holiday favorites!

"Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" tells a very different tale of the Santa Claus we've all come to know and love. It takes place in Lapland, Finland next to the Korvatunturi mountains. These mountains are on the border of the North Pole and is said to be the home to "Father Christmas." There is a legend that centuries ago, a group of citizens where being terrorized by fearsome monsters. They were able to lure one of them into a lake, where he froze in a solid block of ice(think "The Thing"). The villagers cut him out of the lake and buried him beneath a mass of rocks, never to be heard from again. Now present day, a group of local reindeer herders have there Christmas disturbed by a scientist who is doing an "excavation' on the base of the mountain. Reindeer are mysteriously killed and children and supplies start disappearing from the town. Pietari, a small boy very reminiscent of Ralphie from "A Christmas Story", starts to figure out what's really going on.

 Pietari and his father capture an "old man" who only seems to only come alive at the smell of gingerbread cookies.

However, this "old man" isn't exactly what he seems to be!

Eventually, they try to sell him back to the scientist to make up for the loss of there reindeer crop. From here the story really starts to take off, as this "old man" has many "friends" who may just be protecting something even bigger.

"Rare Exports" is written and directed by Jalmari Helander who pulled the story off of two small shorts(here and here) he made about capturing and taming Santa's and then reselling them worldwide.  The movie is in Finnish and English and is rated R. It's more a horror movie then a friendly Christmas movie with dead reindeer, curse words, and a fair amount of blood. However, the location, acting, and music are all extremely well done and story is perfectly told. The best part about this movie is that it's fresh!! Everything coming out of Hollywood these days has been rehashed over and over again. It's very rare these days that an actual "original thought" comes out of Hollywood. I have no doubt that "Rare Export" will be scooped up soon and remade here, most likely by Tim Burton. Here is the trailer for the film.  If you can find it, put the kids to bed, close the chimney, lock the doors, and enjoy this wonderful tale!