Ever wondered where all those department store Santas come from every December? According to Jalmari Helander’s wonderfully silly Rare Exports Inc. they’re captured by teams of trackers, markers and snipers – “three undisputed craftsmen of their trade” in the wilds of Lapland. These Father Christmases – “the most precious free roaming wild beasts of the whole of the northern wilderness” – run wild and naked, are captured and tamed by specialist trainers (they have to have the impulse to bite children knocked out of them) before being crated up and shipped around the world by Rare Exports Inc. in time for the festive season.
Presented as a promotional film for the Rare Exports company, complete with deadpan narration, it’s a brilliantly funny vignette, vaguely reminiscent at times of scenes in the Competition Time episode of British TV sitcom Father Ted. Released online, the short proved popular enough to warrant a sequel, The Official Rare Exports Inc. Safety Instructions 2005 (2005) and formed the basis of Helander feature debut Rare Exports (2010).
The EOFFTV Review 