Interview: ‘Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale’ Director Jalmari Helander
Interview with Jalmari Helander, director of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Interview conducted by Marc Patterson
For a young filmmaker whose breakthrough project Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale – a modern day Christmas tale that finds roots in the traditional lore of years past – is receiving rather widespread accolades, Finnish writer/director Jalmari Helander comes across as a rather easy going and laid back guy. Earlier I was able to catch up with him in the most long distance interview I’ve yet conducted and talk to him more in-depth about his film. You can also read our full review of the film HERE.
Brutal As Hell: Let’s first talk about beginnings. Rare Exports was originally a short film, correct?
Jalmari Helander: Yes, it was.
Brutal As Hell: Can you tell us how you brought this concept to from a simplistic short tale surrounding the exporting of Santas into a full feature?
Jalmari Helander: Yes. We made two short films about this and I have this idea of a third part also. People were saying to me I should make a feature film and I started to think if it would be possible to make a movie about this, not just to stretch the idea of the short film, but to make an actual movie of its own that would just have a link to the short films. And it started the main process of writing and we thought of stupid ideas, but finally got this one.
Brutal As Hell: The story you’re presenting about this Santa Claus – almost a demonic Santa – isn’t really new because it’s the subject of folklore, but what’s interesting is that it really hasn’t been touched on by any other filmmakers. Can you tell us the choice of exploring this folklore route?
Jalmari Helander: Yes. It of course was very very interesting to me that what fun is this? This is much more interesting than the American version, which we have here in Finland also. And it was wonderful as I started collecting material about this and asking people, I found out that it’s actually the total opposite of the Santa Claus that we know now. It’s a scary character that doesn’t bring any gifts for the children but people are afraid of it, and every aspect of it is totally opposite of the modern Santa Claus. It’s quite interesting.
Brutal As Hell: Did you set out to make a horror film? Outside of a few dark scenes this really doesn’t play as a horror film and almost would seem to not want to be seen as such.
Jalmari Helander: Horror film is something that I don’t know where this came from. People are saying that it is a horror film or at least they are thinking it’s a horror film before they see it. But for me it has never been a horror film. It’s more like an adventure film with some scary elements. But this horror label has come from somewhere, but I don’t know from where.
But it has been very nice to be at a larger festival of horror films where people have been absolutely really positively surprised. They come to me after the screening, “Wow, it wasn’t so wild and stupid. It was actually a good movie”, and it’s nice to hear.
Brutal As Hell: And this is even more interesting because a lot of the films from Finland and Sweden of late have transcended genre, and I think that for simplification reasons audiences may look at it and say this is a horror film because it fits nicely on the shelf there…
Jalmari Helander: Yes, yeah.
Brutal As Hell: In terms of bringing together these elements, can you talk a little about your approach because you have some truly scary moments that are offset by this comedy, or at least dark humor. There is also this captivating story of this younger boy set in a larger universe of men.
Jalmari Helander: Yes. This is something that just comes very natural to me. I think this is probably the way I will make movies in the future, I hope. To have some kind of weird idea and still do everything as seriously as you can and direct every actor in every scene as if it will be something, I’m not sure how to explain it, but make everything as seriously as you can, and it will be funny.
Brutal As Hell: The absurdity finds its way through in a natural way.
Jalmari Helander: Yes.
Brutal As Hell: I’d like to talk about gender for a moment, if that’s okay. I was surprised to see a Christmas film that was totally devoid of any female characters – good, bad, or otherwise. How did this choice for an all male cast play into the film?
Jalmari Helander: There are two reasons for that, and one is quite a technical reason. If I would have had a woman there, or if Rauno had a wife, it becomes much more complicated to do stupid things for the men. They have to explain themselves to someone. If there is no woman asking questions like where are you going now, and things like that, it is much more easier. And also I wanted everything and everybody, and the people and places surrounding this main character of Pietari, to be rough and macho and manly as possible, to have this contrast with this young boy and everyone else. I didn’t want to have any more softer characters surrounding Pietari, and it was more effective.
Brutal As Hell: This is a wonderful holiday feel good film that I think every fan of the holiday and genre should see. There’s already talk of what is next for you, and you’ve mentioned a part three. Do you have anything you’re currently working on?
Jalmari Helander: I’m currently writing a new film and I hope to get the script completed very soon. There have been a lot of offers from Hollywood now to make a movie there, but I don’t want to do that yet because I want to do something original and if I were to make a Hollywood film now I probably would not have much to say about anything of the process, and it’s very hard for me to work when you have so many rules. So I am writing my next movie which will be totally in the English language and it’s going to be an action film, and it’s going to be something new, or so I hope at least.
Brutal As Hell: Well I’m glad you mentioned that because I didn’t feel like your movie could be what it was if it were made in Hollywood. The language would have been toned back, and some of the scary elements would had to have been toned down.
Jalmari Helander: Yes.
Brutal As Hell: And Santa out in the cold naked with his penis hanging out – that would never have been seen.
Jalmari Helander: (Laughs) Yes. I hope to have a bigger name one day [so] that I can actually make something with a big big budget, and I would have something to say about the process.
Brutal As Hell: Well I’m about out of time, but I appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today.
Jalmari Helander: Thank you.
Photo Credit: Juha Törmälä, a Helsinki-based photographer.
Official Film Website: http://www.rareexportsmovie.com/en
