Synopsis

It's the eve of Christmas in northern Finland and an "archeological" dig has just unearthed the real Santa Claus. But this particular Santa isn't the one you want coming to town. When all the local children begin mysteriously disappearing, young Pietari and his father Rauno, a reindeer hunter by trade, capture the mythological being and attempt to sell Santa to the misguided leader of the multinational corporation sponsoring the dig. Santa's elves, however, will stop at nothing to free their fearless leader from captivity. What ensues is a wildly humorous nightmare - a fantastically bizarre polemic on modern day morality. RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE is a re-imagining of the most classic of all childhood fantasies, and is a darkly comic gem soon to be required perennial holiday viewing.

Official Review

While Santa Claus is celebrated as a jolly, bearded Coca-Cola spokesman who flies the entire globe in an evening delivering presents to well-behaved children, he and his holiday are no strangers to horror. Most genre films simply put his suit on an impersonator and have him slash his naughty list in half, but aside from Santa’s Slay, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a Christmas horror flick that actually features an evil St. Nick, let alone explores the myth or where he came from. Lucky for us, 2010 has not one, but two features that tackle the idea, the first of which is Jalmari Helander’s Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, a feature-length prequel to two of the director’s shorts from 2003 and 2005. …Read More