#ristosalmi

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is undoubtedly the strangest Christmas film I’ve ever seen. Blending holiday horror, a coming-of-age comedy, and the straight-up bizarre with its own Santa Claus mythology, this is the kind of story that you’d be crazy to green-lit but in practice inexplicably works.

In Finland, a research team has been drilling inside Korvatunturi, a mountain supposedly housing Santa Claus. After uncovering something deep in the earth, Pietari (Onni Tommila) observes strange footprints in the snow. Soon after, his father (Jorma Tommila) discovers an old man (Peeter Jakobi) with a long white beard that couldn’t possibly be Santa Claus… could he?

Only a mind as demented as writer/director Jalmari Helander could come up with Rare Exports, which means you have no way of predicting what’s coming next. You know there’s something buried in that mountain. Presumably, it’s related to the naked old man they've discovered but from there, it could go ANYWHERE. You’re not even sure what kind of movie this is and just when you think you’ve got the genre pinned down, it’ll switch. Inexplicably it all fits together.

Part of what makes this movie such a treat is how un-Hollywood it is. The mythology we’re introduced to is unlike anything we’ve heard before but it’s so quirky and off-beat it seems legitimate, like it was dug up out of some old Finnish version of Grim’s Christmas fairytales or simply what the kids over there believe. You can see the path another filmmaker would’ve taken like fresh tracks in the snow and all of them would’ve led somewhere you’ve seen before. This deliberately buckles your expectations in so many ways. Here’s an example that gives nothing away; there are no women in this film. We know they exist but you don’t see a single one. Is it just the way things turned out? Could be. I’m leaning towards it being a deliberate decision to put us just a little bit off-center, to keep us guessing.

And then, things take another loony turn. You were so busy figuring out what the deal with that old man was, whether Pietari’s dad was a villain or not, what the young boy needed to do to keep safe, what role the wild reindeer in the woods play in all this… when all the clues that were dropped earlier in the movie add up to this revelation that makes your jaw drop. Then, a tonal shift. Then, another. Somehow, the magic of the holiday, the childlike enthusiasm of this nutty movie blend it all together while keeping them separate. This movie has gore and murder but it’s also weirdly sweet and cheery. You’re not even sure if you’re reading it all correctly and then, you get an explanation for that end title. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is best enjoyed when you know as little about it as possible. It’s darkly comic and gruesome but never feels excessive or mean-spirited despite its revisionist origin of Santa Claus There’s fairytale wonder present that gives it a whole lot of charm when you’re not gnawing on your fingernails like they’re gingerbread men. Because its story is so fresh and original, because it covers so many bases, I could easily see it as the kind of demented gem you’re drawn back to annually. (Original Finnish with English subtitles, December 11, 2020)