Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale completed by The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 9 December 2010.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

ACCM review

This review of the movie Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

It’s Christmas 2010 and a mining expedition discovers the burial site of the “real” Santa Claus in ice beneath a mountain. Two young boys Pietari (Onni Tommila) and Juuso (IImari Jarvenpaa), who have snuck into the miners’ camp overhear two men talking about their discovery. When Pietari return home he pulls out a book, “The Truth about Santa Claus” which is full of pictures depicting Santa Claus as a horned demon who tortures and mutilates naughty children.

The following day, Pietari and his father Rauno (Jorma Tommila) leave for the annual reindeer muster, but find that the reindeer have all been brutally slaughtered. While Rauno and other locals believe it to be the work of wolves, Pietari believes the slaughtered reindeer to be the work of a very hungry Santa Claus. Fearing that the miners may have been responsible for the wolves attacking their deer, Rauno and several other locals go to the miners’ camp seeking answers, but all they find is a giant hole in the ground and a completely deserted camp.

The next day, Rauno finds the naked body of an old man who has accidentally fallen into a wolf trap. He removes the body from the trap and takes it inside to his workshop where he realises that the man is still alive. Pietari convinces his father that the old man is the real Santa Claus and is going to steal all of the towns’ naughty children. Rauno along with two other men decide to sell Santa Claus to Riley, the owner of the mining company, but they soon have an army of zombie-like “Santa’s helpers” with which to contend.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Santa Claus and his helpers as evil beings; the supernatural; children being kidnapped and murdered

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

Children are seen carrying and firing guns in this film, and there is some violence and blood and gore, including:

• We see a man sharpening wooden stakes and placing them at the bottom of a deep hole to trap and kill wolves.
• Rauno (father) gives Pietari (son) a loaded shotgun telling him that it is time for him to have it. A short time later a young boy asks Pietari if he is going to shoot Santa Claus.
• A man pushes Pietari roughly, causing him to fall to the ground.
• A young boy grabs another young boy’s mouth and threatens him.
• We see a caved in wolf trap with blood covering the sides of the pit. Pietari asks to see what is at the bottom, but his father forbids him to look. Later we see two men dragging a heavy body-bag away from the hole and then see the blood covered body of a bearded old man laid out on a butcher's table. The men discuss how it would be better to dispose of the body rather than report the accident, and prepare to cut up the body with a bandsaw.
• The old man lying on the table lurches towards another man and a short time later we see the man who was attacked with a bloody wound to the side of his face as though his ear had been torn from the side of his head. We hear that he had been bitten by the old man.
• The old man is bound and left hanging from the ceiling by chains.
• A small group of men and a young boy are surrounded and attacked by a large group of crazed naked beaded old men wielding picks and hand weapons of various types. A hatchet is buried in one man’s head and another man is dragged off. The survivors barricade themselves in a shed. 
• In a number of other scenes we see the naked, bearded old men wielding hand weapons, attacking people and chasing after a young boy.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of eight, including the idea of Santa and his helpers as evil beings. The mysterious old man resembles the classic image of Santa Claus but is a very sinister character. The zombie-like helpers are also very scary. Examples of scary scenes include:

• A book containing horror-like drawings of demon, beast-man Santa Claus torturing and mutilating children in a variety of ways including placing them in pots of boiling water.
• A man butchers a slaughtered pig. A realistic amount of blood and gore is depicted with the man wearing an apron covered in splattered animal blood. Pietari enters the room and is told to close his eyes.
• A snow-covered field is littered with the bloody carcases of dead reindeer. Pietari inspects one of the bloody carcases, lifting a pieced of blood covered fur to peer underneath, and says “He (Santa Claus) sure was hungry”.
• An apparently dead, naked old man covered in blood is laid out on a table. When two men grab at the dead man he appears to suddenly come to life, moving and starting to breathe.
• When Pietari checks his best friend’s bed to make sure he is ok, all that Pietari finds is a creepy looking sack doll left in place of his friend. Pietari becomes distressed by what he finds.
• We see a helicopter with a cargo net suspended below it the cargo net containing dozens of potato sacks each with a young child tied inside.
• A young boy jumps from the underside of a helicopter to land on top of metal tower; the boy is uninjured. 
• On the floor of a shed we see dozens of tied up potato sacks, the sacks are moving about and we hear the muffled sounds of children crying and calling out from within the sacks. One of the sacks was cut open to reveal a young boy inside. We hear a young boy say “we are all going to die”.    

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by the above-mentioned violent and scary scenes.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned violent and scary scenes.

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

None of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some full frontal male nudity in this movie. The film contains numerous images of completely nude men. At times, their genital areas are shadowy, while at other times they are clearly visible.

Use of substances

A brief scene of a man smoking

Coarse language

Rare Exports contains some coarse language and putdowns.  Examples include:

• Shit, skinny runt, morons, idiots, hell, fuck you, old codger, damn it, old devil, arsehole, and bloody.

The movie's message

Rare Exports : A Christmas Tale is a Finnish film with English subtitles.  It is a black comedy with features of a horror film, targeting older adolescents and adults. The film’s lead actor, young Onni Tommila produces a brilliant performance, and the film will certainly entertain its target audience.

Parents are strongly cautioned that this film is not a Christmas tale for younger children. The film contains a number of scenes depicting blood and gore, as well frightening and disturbing images and thematic elements, including the torture of young children.  

The main messages from this movie is that people are capable of making the best out of a bad situation. 

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Selflessness: While only young, Pietari continuously displays acts of selflessness and sacrifice including being willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save a number of children and his father.
• Courage: Pietari repeatedly displays courage in the manner in which he faces his fears and confronts the unknown even though he is very scared.
• Honesty: Although Pietari is threatened by his friend, Pietari tells his father the truth because he believes it is the right thing to do. .  

Parents may also wish to discuss the carrying and using of guns by children in this very different society where people live and support themselves by hunting and protecting their reindeer herds.