Import/Export is not a film one recommends easily. It is a great film but it is not one to look at casually. The director Ulrich Seidl already has a reputation for drastic dialog and acting in his films. He started with documentaries and this is always apparent in his consequent films. The atmosphere is often unbearably realistic, many of his actors deliver so convincing performances that one thinks they must have been brought in from the street. They are not though. This, combined with simple framing leads to the strong documentary impression.

In this film the focus is on two story lines which move in opposite directions. On starts in the Ukrainia and moves to Vienna, Austria and the other starts in Vienna and ends in Ukrainia. Both show a harsh life with violence and humiliation and sexual exploitation. While viewing this film I often wanted to look away or close my eyes as to protect my soul from the terrible experiences, the two protagonists are facing in very different ways. The moments of violence, humiliation and sexuality, although shorter then in his earlier films, are shown in a very graphic way, and stay in your mind long after the picture is over. Maybe you will never forget them.

In this, the film has some parallels to Lukas Moodysons "Lilja 4-ever" which also makes you forget that it is a work of fiction you are watching. Moodyson concentrates himself completely on the tragic story of the main character's exploitation through the economic system and the resulting criminality in eastern Europe, plus the demand for sex without love in the western world and it"s tragic consequences for your unprotected girls.

Seidl, on the other hand, chooses a young but grown up woman and mother in Ukrainia, a trained nurse, who can't make a living by working in a hospital and is forced to work as a porn model in from of an internet camera. Then she leaves for Vienna to work there in various unpleasant jobs.

In the second storyline Seidl shows a young man from Vienna, trying unsuccessful to hold a job and always on the run from people he borrowed money from. He joins his stepfather on his trip through eastern Europe, delivering game automates and the like. They are both frustrated by their poor outlook of their future, and although they don't like each other, they both concur in spending their money easily on booze and women which they like to intimidate and humiliate.

The film has some rare comic moments, but often scenes open on a funny note but then change fast into something that makes you choke on your own laughter. All in all a great, disturbing film!

This is a statement which may apply to the two central characters in this movie, but it also fits audiences. This film here runs for almost 2.5 hours and is another work from director/writer Ulrich Seidl together with his wife. Back when this came out 8 years ago, he was among Austria's most known filmmakers and today he probably is even more, also thanks to his Paradise trilogy. One interesting thing about "Import/Export" is that most of the actors were absolutely new to the acting industry and same goes for the two central actors. Hofmann had a couple more performances afterward, but not a whole lot and for Rak this is still the only credit to this day. Maybe this is also why many of the characters and their dialogs seem so authentic as this is the only role they have ever prepared themselves for. Pretty good writing here and also excellent line delivery for the most part. I am not surprised this film got a nomination at Cannes.

The story centers around an Austrian security employee who travels East and a Ukrainian nurse / cleaning lady who travels the exact different direction. At one point they meet and the story is connected. We watch their struggles, mostly professional, but also occasionally involving their privates lives. There is some Austrian dialect in this film, but you can understand it if you are a native German speaker. It is not that heavy. This film is basically about life going on. Most of the time it is very slow, but occasionally significant events happen. Seidl uses static camera frequently, so we feel as if we are in the room with the main characters watching them. There's some obscenity and nudity and, in one scene, a woman gets mistreated and pulled on her hair, just like a dog, so it's not always easy to watch and probably not a movie for feminists. But it's very raw and realistic and I do not have any major criticisms. A minor one would be that I do not like the main poster that much. It's a bit attention seeking with the top half and as the bottom half belongs to the female plot as well, I believe they should have split it into one for the guy, one for the girl. But this does not have to do directly with the film either, so I certainly recommend watching this.

This is a new entry from Ulrich Seidl, the man who inflicted Dog Days on an unsuspecting public a couple of years ago. Nothing changes much in Seidl's world, life's a bitch/dog and then you die. This time around he centres on two no-hopers who never meet which may be just as well. Olga is a trained nurse but in the Ukraine that doesn't buy her even a half-decent lifestyle so she moonlights - Seidl would probably argue she is forced to - as a porn model until deciding to leave both the Ukraine and her infant daughter for Vienna where, natch, she doesn't do much better. Vienna is home to Pauli who is also unable to sustain much of a life most of which is spent avoiding the heavy hitters he owes money to. Eventually he teams up with his stepfather to deliver/peddle sundry items from a van and winds up in the Ukraine.If you know what Seidl's message is let me know and I'll try to give a damn.