The company Rare Exports Inc. provide a valuable service to the world; with small teams made up of the finest hunters in the world, the company captures, trains, and ships a most deadly prey to countries across the world.Unfortunately I knew the joke in this short film before watching it, so I did not get the benefit of the surprise along the way – which is why this is tagged as containing a spoiler, even though some here seem to think that such a key thing is not worthy of such warming. Anyway, the short film plays like a piece of corporate promotional material, with an earnest voice-over telling us about the craft and risks taken by the hunting team, and the work they do. The twist comes when we see the prey is a wild Father Christmas – one of many being hunted, captured and then prepared to be shipped around the world as originals in time for the Christmas market. As an idea it is a clever one and amused me just by its silliness and yet how sincerely it is presented.The idea of domesticating a wild animal for the sake of a commercial holiday is also one that is slightly barbed, and the slightly serious tone of the mock-advert does also help keep the viewer in this mindset – so although it is funny, it is not overly played for laughs, instead it does give you space to think about the idea that we actually do heavily commercialize nature – albeit not quite in the same way, but for sure there is an element of satire in here that it is not a huge leap to know that we would do this if it were real.The dry and serious approach is very well done, and it fits the tone and style of corporate pieces well – not sure if Helander has his background in these, but he has a good eye for them anyway. Best viewed with the surprise as a novelty, it is an amusing and quite funny little short, which also works as a satire on the nature of commercialization, and of the commercialization of nature.

There's probably a hundred (short) films out there that get you in the spirit for the holidays, but really funny ones are a rarity. This one is definitely a decent Christmas comedy. It runs for slightly over 7 minutes, which is fine, but also pretty much the limit as the hunting scenes, which went on for a large part of the film really shouldn't have been longer, although the tension and curiosity about what they were hunting for was rising more and more. The over-the-top serious narrator did a pretty good job though and you could feel the funny tone from the way he spoke highly of the prey and praised it as "king of the forest" on one occasion for example.From the moment on where the bearded hunters caught it, it's absolutely hilarious. Interesting idea, convincing execution and definitely worth a watch during the holidays for being a somewhat different Christmas movie. Also there's a follow-up short film and even a feature film about the issue, which may very well be worth watching, but I haven't seen these, so can't say for sure. In any case it's good to see Jalmari Helander, the director gets the chance and will work with Samuel L. Jackson, Jim Broadbent and others on a project of international prestige.

RARE EXPORTS INC is a short and amusing film from Finland written and directed by Jalman Helander . It involves a group of hunters and trackers stealthily creeping through the winter landscape of Finland looking for their prey . Try and imagine a Discovery Channel documentary featuring hunters and you'll be very surprised as to what the hunters find Unfortunately since the whole revolves around the pay off as to who/what the prey is I was rather disappointed that the site I watched RARE EXPORTS INC showed a still of the hunters quarry but this is not the fault of Helander of course , but I feel I should warn everyone if they're going to watch it on youtube the cat is well and truly let out of the bag before the film even loads . That said I still managed to laugh out loud when the hunters were cruel to their captured prize

While this is a very entertaining and humorous short film, it is also worth mentioning that it is a ad for Woodpecker Film showing their flair, know-how and expertise. This company has produced a lot of advertisements, some music videos and a like. Some of the ads are for Finnish military, drinks and food stuffs.Watch some of them at Woodpeckerfilm.fiThe movie it self is a work of genius, using Finnish landscape and popular beliefs, so to speak, as the source for the mid-movie surprise. The narrator is very convincing with the low movie trailer type voice and makes for a funny emphasis.