Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is a Finnish Christmas movie written and directed by Jalmari Helander about people living near the Korvatunturi mountain who discover the secret behind Santa Claus. The film is based on the 2003 short film Rare Exports Inc., and its 2005 sequel Rare Exports: The Official Safety Instructions, by Jalmari Helander and Juuso Helander, both of which involve a company that traps wild Santa Clauses and trains and exports them to locations around the world. It was released at the Austin Fantastic Fest on September 24, 2010.
Acclaimed actress Cate Blanchett cited the movie as one of her favorite movies.
Plot[]
A American and British research team from Subzero is taking drill core samples on top of Korvatunturi(Ear Fell) in the Finnish province of Lapland. The fell is believed to be the home of Joulupukki, a figure in Finnish folklore that helped shape modern day versions of Santa Claus.
It becomes clear to team leader Riley that the entire fell is an ancient burial mound built by the Saami over centuries to conceal and imprison something. Two local boys, Juuso and Pietari, watch the team at work and eavesdrop on their discussions. They run to Juuso's nearby snowmobile quarreling about Santa Claus's existence, as the team begins to excavate the fell using explosives. Pietari returns home to read some books about Santa Claus, which suggest that he was a horned being who whips misbehaving children and boils them in a cauldron.
The day before Christmas Eve, Pietari's father Rauno, a local reindeer slaughterer, digs a trap pit in the yard to protect the remaining reindeer in case of wolves. He wakes Pietari up by throwing a snowball at his window and tells him to prepare for rounding up reindeer herds with the other herders at the electric reindeer pen. This year, there were only two skinny reindeer runts, so Rauno and the herders go to a glacier by Korvantunturi. When they reach there they find the remains of hundreds of reindeer that were gnawed to the bone. It looks like the explosions that have been going on at the fell for months have driven the wolves in the area mad. Rauno examines the carcasses worriedly. Farther away Pietari too examines the traces and is convinced that it's not the work of wolves, while Juuso warns him not to tell his father that they plied open the fence to Korvantunturi.
Rauno's reindeer slaughterhouse has been on the brink of bankruptcy for a long time. The attack of the wolves seems to be the final straw. But Rauno has one more chance. He heads to Korvatunturi to demand retribution from the Subzero company, whose personnel were killed for provoking a mysterious new threat by their rude behaviour. On the top of the fell all Rauno and his group find is a pit 400 meters deep and no trace of the Subzero personnel. It looks as if something was lifted from the depths of hell. Having lost all hope Rauno returns to his farm.
On the morning of Christmas Eve the trap has worked, but instead of a wolf, there is a naked old man trapped in it. Even though Pietari was grounded for playing a trick with his father for using reindeer traps in the fireplace, he has been full of fear of the approaching Christmas, like an animal sensing a more powerful beast in its territory. He sneaks out of his father's house to a police truck, with his disappointed father in hot pursuit. They reach a village, where Rauno hears from other villagers that potato sacks, heaters, and Piiparinen's wife's hair-dryer, have gone missing. Pietari enters Piiparinen's house, and finds that Piiparinen's son Juuso is gone, with a straw effigy in his place.
Piiparinen brings a sack, which contains the skinny old man, and leaves his inactive body on a table in Rauno's reindeer slaughterhouse. While he, Rauno, and Aimo discuss their plans, Pietari calls his friends on the telephone, and finds that they have all gone missing. Piiparinen teases the old man with a piece of gingerbread, and the old man bites off his ear. Piiparinen comes out and asks the other two men to come and see the old man. Pietari asks his father to spank him for his bad deeds, such as plying open the fence to Korvantunturi, as he fears that the children's bad deeds might have caused Santa to take them away. They are interrupted when Piiparinen tells Rauno to come and see the old man again, as the old man is strong enough to break a metal bar. When Pietari enters, the old man is attracted to him as he is a child, and the men must defend Pietari from being harmed.
They dress the old man in Piiparinen's Santa costume, and message the Americans that they "have found Santa Claus". They take the old man in a cage to an airbase, where they meet Riley. Riley warns that the old man in a cage is not Santa Claus, but one of Santa's elves, and that they must not behave rudely. When one of them mutters a curse word, the other elves (who look like naked old men) destroy the electric lights, and kill Riley and his pilot. The men and Pietari run to Hangar 24, where they find a horned being in an enormous block of ice being melted by the missing heaters. Underneath the block of ice are several sacks containing the crying stolen children, including Juuso. They are attacked by the elves, who attempt to break into the hangar.
As Rauno, Piiparinen, and Aimo disconnect the heaters and use them to block the elves from the doorway, Pietari devises a plan. Piiparinen comes out of the hangar, and distracts the elves by throwing gingerbread at them, so that he can reach the helicopter. The other two men make a net, which Pietari climbs on as it picks up the sacks of children to lure the elves to the reindeer pen. The other two men place explosives all over Santa Claus' ice block, and cut off his horns, before fleeing the hangar in a truck. Pietari climbs down the net of children and an antenna to open the reindeer pen, as the horde of elves runs toward him. Rauno and Aimo detonate the explosives, killing Santa Claus and causing the elves to stop at the reindeer pen before they can hurt Pietari.
After the children are returned to their homes, Rauno decides to start a new business with the Subzero company, in which the captured elves are trained to become mall Santas and exported to various locations around the world.