Film: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Showing posts with label Film: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Film: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. Show all posts
SPECIAL FEATURE: Rare Exports: A Short Introduction
Friday 3rd December sees the UK release of an alternative festive feature, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. With the predictable onslaught of sugar sweet seasonal cinema, this Finnish production has more Predator about it than Jingle All The Way. Rare Exports promises a very different portrayal of the traditional jolly Santa Clause. The brainchild of Finnish brothers Jalmari and Juuso Helander, this unlikely cinema baddy’s roots go deeper than director Jalmari’s debut feature.
This concept dates back to 2003. Whilst working for a commercial production company, Jalmari was given the task of creating a Christmas gift for his company’s clients. With the help of his brother, he came up with an idea for Rare Exports. The company loved it, but with an estimated price of 3,000 Euros to create, it seemed an unlikely prospect. After a number of phone calls, and calling in a few favours, Helander set out to create two short films that would become an internet sensation.
Rare Exports Inc (2003)
Given a production time limit of two days, Helander shot this eight-minute short in just one-and-a half days. In the impressive snow covered wilderness of Lapland, three master hunters go in search of the ultimate prey; the tracker, sniper and rifleman all possess the most honed of skills. Their target: Father Christmas’! Reportedly, one of the deadliest man killers alive, even after being tranquilised, they can cover huge distances and have the capacity to tear apart a bear. Once caught, these hunters transform the snarling beasts into red faced jolly Santas, who are then distributed worldwide.
The comedy of this short is so striking due to it keeping a straight face throughout. Shot in glossy documentary style with Attenborough style narration, the initial shock of seeing a chubby bearded man on the end of the hunter’s shot is both brilliantly built up to and unexpected. Although, for many, the cat is now out of the bag, the boldness of the idea shines through. This is supported with fantastic direction of a breathtaking backdrop that contrasts the silliness of the concept to great effect. The twisted images of a snarling, grubby and very naked St. Nick are both twisted and tongue-in-cheek hilarious.
Rare Exports: Official Safety Instructions (2005)
Released on the internet nearly three years after the success of its predecessor, the next Rare Exports short serves as the perfect companion. By this point, the original had become a cult hit with millions of views on YouTube and other sites - the imaginary company’s logo was widely recognised and demand was high for more, ensuring less of a struggle to secure funding.
This short, ten minutes long, serves as a list of instructions/warnings as to the dangers of mistreating your Santa. Like a modern day Gremlins, it sets out a list of rules for a creature that is more interested in punishing the naughty than rewarding the nice. Santas hate loud noises, alcoholic drinks, smoking and, of course, people not behaving. We are shown the bloody consequences of neglecting these strict boundaries.
This sequel piece brilliantly continues the deadpan tone of the original. Jonathan Hutchings’ narration is supported by a well calculated stern script. We imagine Hutchings’ struggle to keep a straight face with lines like, “the strong aroma of fresh gingerbread biscuits may prolong the attack...,” read with perfect documentary monotone. The black comedy here comes with a little more gore and horror; this adds to the menace of the piece but also builds on the story’s huge range of possibilities. Helander continues to play with the traditions of Christmas with the utmost imagination...
It has taken five years for this internet phenomenon to make it onto the big screen. The production has been taken on board by Cinet, Davaj Films and Agnes B. Productions and is staying very true to its roots. Halander has realised the potentially disastrous transformation of short film to feature film, and seems set to reproduce all of the short’s winning formula. He has kept the same rustic looking cast of woodsmen, with Tommi Korpela, Jorma Tommila and Tazu Ovaska all returning to their roles as the hunters.
The story goes back to before Rare Exports Inc exists, American researchers dig up the dormant creatures which are buried deep in the Korvatunturi Mountains. The most exciting prospect of the film is Halander’s dedication to put it across in the style of his artistic influences. Helander is a lover of ‘80s comedy horror such as The Goonies, The Lost Boys and Gremlins, and the film’s discoveries centre around its main character, a kid. This promises all the adventure and fun of an era in horror whose presence has been sorely missed.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale promises to be a real event this Christmas. With a rich heritage, bolder than bold ideas, and a completely new take on festive cinema, this is one to get excited about. With a concept that could otherwise fall folly to spoof or slapstick, it would seem, in Helander’s hands, this cannot fail to make an impact. LW
NEWS: Cinema Release: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
It was the week before Christmas when young and adventurous Pietari uncovered the truth about Santa Claus. Legend has it that the jolly old man is more of a foe than a friend.
A group of American scientists is also looking to uncover some facts in Pietari’s quiet rural town in northern Finland. It turns out that the best-kept Christmas secret ever lies 500 meters below ground. This dark secret and Pietari unleash an unforeseen chain of events, after which, Christmas will never, ever, be the same again.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is the long-awaited follow-up (actually a prequel) to the two award-winning and cult online hit shorts: Rare Exports Inc (2003) and Rare Exports Inc – Safety Instructions (2005) – both films have received more than one million downloads on YouTube.
The film, by talent commercial and music video director Jalmari Helander, tells the story of how Santa Clauses are hunted down and domesticated to prepare them for export all around the world. Its visually stunning, ‘80s style kid-friendly horror-fantasy vibe contains all the ingredients to be the perfect Christmas cult-film we’ve all been waiting for: a perfect concept, superb visuals, great actors, and a story, tinged with black comedy - and a multi-faceted message that speaks to everyone.
Film: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Release date: 3rd December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 82 mins
Director: Jalmari Helander
Starring: Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommila, Per Christian Ellefsen, Tommi Korpela, Rauno Juvonen
Genre: Action/Comedy/Fantasy
Studio: Icon
Format: Cinema
Country: Finland/Norway/France/Sweden
INTERVIEW: Director: Jalmari Helander
Interview courtesy of Icon.
Christmas themed horror is going through a major resurgence these days, and the man leading the charge is Finland’s Jalmari Helander. Long before the arrival of Treevenge, Helander - a commercial and music video director - had directed a pair of short films about the ‘real’ Santa Clauses living in the far north and the men who traffic illegally in them.
Titled Rare Exports, the films were huge online hits. So when the time came for Helander to step into the feature world...well, you can guess what he’s doing. The feature version of Rare Exports promises to have an ‘80s style, kid friendly, horror-fantasy vibe. Like The Monster Squad only with more snow - and with Santa being the monster. Helander was good enough to answer a few of our questions about the project…
Rare Exports is something that has been with you for a long time. Can you describe the origins of the project, and what has made it so appealing to you for so long?
In 2003, I was working in a commercial production company, and they wanted to make some kind of Christmas related film as a present to their clients. I started to create an idea. I called my brother Juuso, and few days later he had an interesting idea. Guys who hunted down Santa. We started to build the script from that, and I presented the script to my producers. They liked it. But there was something like 3,000 Euros to make that happen...
After a few favours and millions of phone calls, we were able to start the production. We had two days to shoot - we shot in one-and-a-half. We gave the DVDs to the clients and we also released it in the web. Two weeks later, we realised that it had become a hit. But the idea of Santa had been in my head many years before that. I felt that people needed to know what the original Santa is like.
How difficult did you find the process of adapting the short films into a feature? What kind of challenges were there?
Just to adapt the short film idea and to make it a feature could have been a serious mistake. I realised that I finally have the time to tell the whole concept of the ‘real’ Christmas that I have been thinking about a lot. And, of course, I wanted to keep the same characters and have the same feel as the short films.
I know some Nordic countries (Iceland for sure) have VERY different legends about Santa. Is that true for Finland? Did you grow up hearing about a scary Santa, or is this something you discovered later?
I have to confess that the legend of Santa in the feature is a little bit scarier than the stories I heard as a child. But the reason for all this is the original Finnish Santa. He was not a nice, fat and jolly Coca Cola Santa but a scary creature who came on Christmas Eve and demanded presents for himself. That was the original story. And it made me wonder why this story has been turned into something totally different. It's weird. There has to be some kind of conspiracy behind this... Something bad happened, and they are trying to make us all forget what the real Santa is about.
Kids fantasy is a genre I love and have been sad to watch slip away, but this really seems to capture that late 1980s spirit. What were the key films you looked at when trying to find the right tone for this?
It’s hard to say exactly. There's a bit of a mix of E.T., Signs, Fargo and Pan's Labyrinth, but nothing like those films at all.
What would you say the balance is between horror, fantasy and comedy in the film? What audience did you make it for?
The answer of the mix is in my previous answer. It’s not a horror film, that's for sure, but it's not for little children either. I hope it is funny but in a dark kind of way. And it's really hard to say who is the audience. I think for people like me.
When I go to movies I like to see something nice and exiting. Something that I can't see in my everyday life. I want to be entertained.
The film is so different from anything else to have ever come out of the region… Did you have trouble pitching the concept to investors and the industry?
Actually, no. I had some starting problems with the script, but when the idea was ready, I was lucky to see that everything went quite smoothly. The short films helped, and they seem to like the script. IC
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