Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale NR

Directed by Jalmari Helander. Starring Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommila, Ilmari Järvenpää, Peeter Jakobi, and Per Christian Ellefsen.

Christmas takes a turn for the grim when a team of Finnish archaeologists unearth a man who appears to be Old St. Nick, only to find that the legends of a jolly, gentle cherub couldn't be further from the truth. Enraged at the multinational corporation that underwrote the excavation for disrupting his village's annual reindeer roundup -- one of the few yearly events that help to keep the local economy afloat -- single father and reindeer hunter Rauno (Jorma Tommila) is shocked when his frail son, Pietari (Onni Tommila), makes a curious connection between the high-profile dig and the story of Father Christmas. The local reindeer herd has been viciously slaughtered, and now all of Pietari's friends are vanishing without a trace. When Pietari looks beyond pop-culture history to unlock the real truth about Santa Claus, he learns that his young friends have every reason to fear this Christmas. By the time Pietari realizes what's happening in his small town, however, it's already too late; Santa's helpers are closing in fast, and this year the naughty kids will be running scared.