Reindeerspotting: Escape from Santaland(Reindeerspotting – pako Joulumaasta)

Name: Reindeerspotting: Escape from Santaland
Genre: Documentary

Finland · 2010
1h 24m
Director Joonas Neuvonen
Starring Jani Raappana
Genre Documentary

Reindeerspotting is a documentary film of a group of young guys living in Rovaniemi, Arctic Circle, dabbling in petty crime and hard drugs. One of them, Jani, has lost five years of his life and two fingers to his debotators. He wants to leave Lapland and his old life behind. Robbing a supermarket is a start for his getaway. A few years back a documentarist, Joonas Neuvonen, was a young men living on social welfare, using drugs on daily basis. He started to film his friends and their life. This is the story of Jani.

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Variety by

With an obvious nod to "Trainspotting," Joonas Neuvonen's junkie documentary Reindeerspotting combines the greasy immediacy of that Danny Boyle parable, the naked candor of Larry Clark's "Tulsa" and the laconic poetry of William S. Burroughs' "Junkie."

Time Out by David Fear

While it never hits the gritty heights of you-are-there junky journalism à la Larry Clark's "Tulsa," you still feel as if you've personally toured the abyss.

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

Mostly pathetic but on occasion grimly funny.

The New York Times by Mike Hale

It's also a pretty familiar story, and "Reindeer," despite Mr. Neuvonen's verve and Jani's charisma, can drag. Like a lot of addiction stories, it starts to mirror the monotony and self-absorption of the addict's life.