The story
About Rare Exports
In the Arctic north of Finland, a young boy growing up with his reindeer-herder father becomes convinced that the drilling crew blasting into a nearby mountain has dug up something best left buried: the original Father Christmas of old folklore, who punished children rather than rewarding them. As Christmas Eve approaches, the herd is found slaughtered, local children start to vanish and a strange old man turns up in his father's wolf trap. Father, son and a handful of weather-beaten herders decide to deal with it themselves, and to make it pay.
The CineClaus verdict
Deadpan and properly strange, this is the Christmas film for anyone who always suspected the old folklore had teeth.
Jalmari Helander plays it as a slow-burn creature feature on frozen fells, and a real father and son, Jorma and Onni Tommila, give it a warmth you would not expect. Christmas drives the premise even though the tinsel barely shows.
The last stretch swaps dread for a gleeful twist that not everyone will buy, and it is better for it. Subtitles, a dark room and a cold night suit it best.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: wait until fifteen and up: it turns Father Christmas into something monstrous, features child abductions and a slaughtered reindeer herd, and carries plenty of frightening if mostly implied violence.
BBFC advice: Contains frequent moderate threat.
Content advice & accessibility
- Where the advice comes from
- The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official 15 certificate, and never looser than it.
