Import/Export (2007)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Ulrich Seidl

Writers:

Veronika Franz (writer)
Ulrich Seidl (writer)

Release Date:

11 October 2007 (Czech Republic)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A nurse from the Ukraine searches for a better life in the West, while an unemployed security guard from Austria heads East for the same reason. |

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | Security Guard | Sexual Dominance | Cleaning Lady | Stepfather Adult Stepson Relationship

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Ekateryna Rak	...	Olga
Paul Hofmann	...	Pauli
Michael Thomas	...	Michael
Maria Hofstätter	...	Schwester Maria
Georg Friedrich	...	Pfleger Andi
Natalya Baranova	...	Olgas Freundin - Ukraine (as Natalja)
Natalja Epureanu	...	Olgas Freundin
Erich Finsches	...	Erich Schlager
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Herbert Fritsch	...	Paulis Vater
Susanne Lothar	...	Paulis Mutter
Petra Morzé	...	Mother in Family Home
Thomas Nash
Dirk Stermann	...	Ausbilder für Putzfrauen

Runtime:

141 min | South Korea:123 min | Germany:135 min

Country:

Austria

Language:

German | Slovak | Russian | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Czech Republic:15 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:III | Sweden:15 | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:15 | UK:18 | Australia:R | France:-16

Filming Locations:

Vienna, Austria

Company:

Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion GmbH

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Metropolis: Cannes 2007 - Special" (2007)

A Film That Should Elicit A Response From The Viewer

No matter what you think about a film like Import/Export, you have to have some kind of reaction to it. It is an unsettling, bleak look at a couple of lives that the viewer will rarely think about unless confronted with in a film like this. The story takes place in both Ukraine and in Austria and focuses on 2 lives of very different people who share a similar circumstance of being at the end of the line in the place that they live in. Both seek change and their circumstances take very different shapes and fates but share a similar intention, to find a better life.

The director and writer give us little hope in their depiction of these 2 lives and how their environments constantly conspire to either keep them down or challenge their will to survive and change. It is a story at once about Eastern Europe and a story about the world's 'lower classes' and their monumental struggle against inertia and their past. It is a movie filled with images, humor, highs and lows, and, graphic scenes of sexual play that all add to the base quality of the human experience that exists not only in Eastern Europe, but, many place in the world today. Human beings have created incredible technology and yet there is still so much ignorance, cruelty, and, general meanness in the world. A rough film told with a keen eye toward a subtle message.