IN DEVELOPMENT

ABOUT SANTALAND

Emmi lives in Rovaniemi in the Finnish Lapland - the city of Santa Claus - with her

sixteen sled dogs and her four-year-old daughter Tiira. Every dark winter morning, she drives with her dogs to the Santa Claus village to offer sled dog rides to tourists. The Santa Claus village is a small, plastic centre of tourism, where Christmas songs are playing around the clock and the people working there dress up in Christmassy costumes. Guides, post officers and waitresses are acting like elves, who live and work just to see happy people. The elves bring the customers to Emmi and her dogs while singing “Rudolf the red nosed reindeer”.

 Emmi’s mentor is Antti, a retired professional sled dog driver, who refuses to stop dog sledding despite his limited physical condition. Together with Antti, Emmi has a dream: to train her dogs to compete in Finnmarksloppet, Europe’s longest and toughest sled dog race, in Norway in 2025. Their dream is only possible one way: by working for the Santa Claus over the tourist season, when working days are long and sun stays below the horizon.

SANTALAND is a film about dogs and Santa Claus. While following Emmi and Antti’s journey towards the competition, we will come closer to the phenomena of Christmas tourism. All of it from a sled dog driver’s point of view. In Santa Claus’ Village, breath-taking arctic nature meets plastic Christmas kitsch. There is also a grave contradiction at the heart of this business – people come to experience extraordinary natural beauty, while simultaneously destroying it.

PRODUCTION INFO

Title: Santaland

Genre: Documentary

Length: 90 min

CREDITS

Director: Niko Väistö 

Producer: Margarete Jångard (WG Film), Hanna Markkanen (WG Film)