Do you believe in Santa Claus? - Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

What kind of film do people want to see this time of year?  A nice, heartwarming Christmas movie to fill you with all of the old joys?  A film with all the fuzzy feelings and glitter you've grown to expect? Or a new story with some shocking revelations about that old man with a white beard, who dresses in red and lets himself in to your bedroom in the middle of the night...?  Early December in the snowy mountains of northern Finland, an archaeological dig with a difference is underway.  By Christmas Eve they finally dig up what they've been looking for.  Reindeer are dying and all the naughty children have started to disappear.

Little boy Pietari has started to notice footprints in the snow outside his bedroom window and along with his friend stumbles upon the secret dig in the mountains.  He convinces himself they are digging up Santa, but who believes in Santa Claus these days?  Certainly not his dad Rauno, who has enough problems of his own.  The reindeer him and his colleagues were relying on to hunt and sell have all turned up dead, rotting and worthless.  It looks like it's going to be a cold, grim Christmas for the townsfolk.  Grim that is, until they discover what the diggers have found and subsequently let escape.  It's Santa!  It looks like they might have something to sell after all.  But this Santa, to put it simply, is a freaking mentalist.  He has a penchant for running after kids stark naked with everything hanging out, including his long white beard.  In the old days naughty children just didn't get bought any GameStations or PlayCubes, but now they just get chased with weapons, kidnapped and tied up in sacks.  Fair enough, if you ask me.

Rare Exports exhibits such beautiful and clever imagery you can't help but fall for it.  At one point Pietari stands in front of a giant door emblazoned with the number 24, nicely mirroring the Christmas Eve door on the advent calendar he was so reluctant to open.  And the constant snowfall, nose-running chill and surprise comedic energy highlights their desperation making you feel an affinity with their loss.

A little slow at first but I didn't mind that at all as it gave me time to take in the new concept that Santa was truly evil and not just the otherworldly authoritative figure I always thought he was.  This film quickly becomes the story of a brave boy and the notion that believing actually means surviving.

The first incarnation of Rare Exports was the short film Official Safety Instructions and it just shows you that this Christmas movie has been begging to be made for some time.  So with this story I must pose the question, do you believe in Santa Claus?  If you do, I guess I'll be seeing you next year after all.