User reviews

Whereas Ulrich Seidl in "Hundstage", his first non-documentary film took the hottest days of the year for the description of apathy, brutality and humiliation in society, his new film takes place in a cold scenery. And that in a double sense: While in the East (mostly in the Ukraine) there is a deep winterly climate, in the West (Vienna) the relations and the social environment are characterized by coldness.Seidl's films have always been controversial because of the docu-like unrelenting gaze of their pictures,which abstain from any commentary and because of their description of social milieus and phenomenons one usually does not perceive or doesn't want to.All that applies also to "Import Export".Here we find scenes of grotesque disgust, in which the spectator is ashamed of watching and blaming the camera for its rigidity.On the other hand these films create some kind of maelstrom,which is difficult to escape from.There always is the question:Does he exploits his protagonists or not.Well, everyone has to find his own answer: I don't think so because showing the situation does not mean its denunciation.The story depicts in two unrelated strands two diametrical movements: From East to West and vice versa.The title already refers to the films main subject:The goods-like character,which the globalized capitalistic world imposes on the people.The society is in a desperate state ; nevertheless it is Seidl's most human film.He seems to show empathy for his two protagonists and even if there is no sort of Happy-End - the film has no real end at all,but just leaves its figures alone- the hope remains,that they have got a little bit of strength and decisiveness,which could make a more self-defined life in the future possible.Or maybe not.Every Film of Seidl makes you leave the cinema thinking,that the whole world and the people are in a desperate and hopeless state,but here we have at least little moments of tenderness,in which we see people fighting for their dignity.A rigorous film for the lovers of contemporary austrian film(Albert, Glawogger,Haneke) and definitely no "entertainement".

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.

Many film's about sad, boring lives are themselves boring (and not truly sad). Not so Ulrich Siedl's remarkable 'Import/Export', which tells a simple, and fundamentally depressing, story at great length, but with compelling naturalism. Not only that, but Siedl shows an uncanny ability to find interesting shots: the film has a haunting quality, and in every scene there's something that draws the viewer's attention and makes one think. The plot, such as it is, tells the story of two people, a Ukranian woman to emigrates to Austria in search of a better life, and an Austrian man who ends up in Ukraine; in Hollywood, their stories would inevitably be drawn together, but Siedl keeps them in parallel throughout. One link is that both are involved (at different ends) in the Ukranian sex industry, and Siedl's uncompromising depiction of this attracted some notoriety for this movie; but it's a long way from a titillating film.

The acting is excellent, and the way the characters evolve is fascinating. Ekatarina Rak's Olga is allowed to inch slowly towards a better life in Austria, albeit at a high price. Paul Hofmann's Pauli is even more interesting, a loner and misfit denied the chance by his environment to become a good person; disaffected from his present life, he can find no route map to another one. Not only do the two stories not converge, but one ends with a lengthy series of hospital scenes in which the origin of the central character is of decreasing importance; this could be a film about lonely people anywhere. Indeed, for all the film's "naturalism", it's depiction of social reality might perhaps be questioned, I would have guessed this movie was set in 1997 rather than 10 years later (although my own estimate of reality is based on the newspapers, so it may well be this that is wrong). Certainly the film is not an explicit political indictment. But it is a sympathetic and original insight into existential loneliness and the harshness of life in the modern world.

I came to this film when it was mentioned by a fellow IMDb user who occasionally points me towards some European films that I have not seen. More often than not they are fairly bleak affairs but, while Hollywood probably dominates the action genre, Europe tends to be best at films dealing with the bleakness of life. And so it is here in a film that painstakingly depicts the bleakness of the lives of two characters. Olga is a nurse in the Ukraine who travels to the West for a better life and finds herself working in an old people's home as a cleaner. Meanwhile Pauli is a young man in Austria who has little going for him employment-wise and finds himself under the wing of his morally defunct step-father.

It is not a theme that I haven't seen before but here it seems to be the entire film and there is surprisingly little in the way of narrative framework, far less actual narrative flow to it. In itself this maybe isn't a problem because "experience" films can work as well as "start/middle/end" stories – but to go for in excess of two hours without much of a story is a tall order and it is one that this film cannot fill. Without much of a story or characters what results is essentially a wallow in some specific examples of life as survival until death and very little else. This message is perhaps fair enough but it is delivered without much intelligence and comment, just scene after scene laid out. It doesn't even really have any sort of central scenes or direction to it and indeed doesn't even have any "big" moments that one could see as having been built to – although I'm not saying it would have been better by artificially having them.

The cinema vérité style is to be commended because it does convince as a piece of realism (which is why perhaps not having one big "event" is a good thing) but the downside of it is that, like life sometimes, it is pretty dull and doesn't really have much meaning behind it. And this is what I took away from the film because I did find it to be far too long for the loose material to sustain and it did feel like each and every scene had only the same message to deliver and it just kept repeating that long after the audience had gotten it. I guess if you're looking for a film to confirm the drabness of existence then this is it but it must be said that there are films that do it with a lot more meaning and heart than this one.

Two parallel stories - one about a young Ukrainian immigrant in Austria (Olga), and another about a young Austrian traveling for work reasons in East Europe (Pauli). It is a story of simple people with a dark future and gray unhappy lives. The movie was shot in Austria, Slovakia, Rumania and Ukrania, mostly with non-actors in a documentary sort of style. It has a 1980s sort of visual style, and it has a depressing mood and colors.

The movie, despite being in Cannes official selection, has a sluggish script, poor dialogues and lacks in focus, all factors that rest credibility to the story.

The movie has beautiful and shocking scenes, they won't leave you indifferent for sure. Some of them are so because of their sexual nature, others for their sadness, others because of their tenderness, and others because depict situations that are not easy to see without getting an emotional reaction.

The characters of Pauli, Olga, and Pauli's father are well played by Paul Hofmann, Ekateryna Rak and Michael Thomas, respectively. However, the drawing of the characters lacks in dramatic depth and the viewer resents that. We see them struggling in their lives, but we don't understand why they got to that point, what is their personal background -which is only hinted-, what is troubling their souls. On the other hand, Olga's story is told in a straightforward clear way, but Pauli's story is not, despite his character being, a priori, very interesting and cool.

The story doesn't seem to have any purpose, just to catch glimpses of a sad reality. If that was the director's intention, a documentary would have been more respectful and less pretentious. The end, on the other hand, is also unresolved.

I found that the selection of some Rumanian, Slovakian and Ukrainian depressed areas offers a misleading view of countries that, otherwise, are modern and normal. However, those areas are presented as if they were the real country, i.e. as if all of those countries were like that. Marginal suburbs can be found anywhere in the developed world, not just in those countries.

I'm appalled at the poster of the movie being the one it is, which is utterly misleading. The movie is not about sex, is about life and death, about two different life paths that lead nowhere but in opposite directions.

Nothing new in the horizon and nothing memorable either, but is an interesting movie not easy easy to watch, but engaging nevertheless.

I'm not sure if Austrian film maker Ulrich Seidl makes the best use of the extended study of duality between two seemingly random; seemingly disconnected European people plodding on through their lives as he might'v done, in this, his 2008 film Import/Export. As characters, his two leads are motivated and ultimately somewhat decent folk, particularly when placed up against those they spend the majority of their time with, but folk we feel are stuck in an inescapable world of sleaze; violence and discomfort. They travel their continent looking for incident and such in order to advance their existences, but are mostly always greeted with pain; frustration; antagonism and failure – happenings and the like which, whilst often carrying with them degrees of smut which we rightfully find uncomfortable, stick it in a break it off for good measure. The film is good value for its early part; Seidl's piece probably about thirty or so minutes too long, and where the equal balance between either strand felt in place for the first hour, such a parity vanishes by the time his heroine has reached that of a hospital and the whole things beds down into a near infuriating drama peppered with content we begin to question the need of.

The film follows that of two people, one male and one female; one of whom is Paul (Hofmann), an athletic young Austrian living in an apartment whose spare room is rife with items such as boxing gloves; gym equipment and military webbing, and whose interest in such things extends to the fact he maintains a job in security at a local shopping mall demanding constant athleticism through its rigorous training regime. Olga (Rak), a young Ukrainian woman, works in her drab in-appearance; colourless; snowy homeland as a nurse in a hospital, but grows frustrated at her low wages which causes her to head west. This is in sync with around about the same time Paul decides to go in the opposite direction, specifically towards Slovakia, for various reasons linked to his failed relationship with a girlfriend and problems in owing money to some unscrupulous people.

Principally, the film is about the apparent duality prominent between these two people; how, in spite of gender, nationality and differing backgrounds of living in the nations of Austria and Ukraine respectively, two people can wade through similar, if not identical, mires purely so as to reach similar denouements. Perhaps if they'd somehow bumped into each other in this wacky, mixed up world, they'd have been able to solve some of one another's problems and got along better in life. Their quests in either direction both begin with that of frank, sexualised encounters; encounters of which are humiliating and rely heavily on that of a distinct element of power instigated certain people within. Olga, with her low-pay frustrations, happens across an Internet peep-show job operating out of a lonely disused building, whose offices and such have been converted into small dens in which the girls in-front of the web cameras do whatever it is customers logged on at the other end tell them to. During a night shift at his mall job, Paul prowls the underground car park area and is apprehended by a group of youths; youths whom consequently strip him and instigate a demeaning session of mock-sadomasochism involving the man's security equipment that he had with him in the form of belt and handcuffs.

In owing money to various people, Paul hulks out to the bleak-looking East of the continent with his stepfather on a job delivering beaten-up video arcade games and sweet machines. Olga's situation, again infused with that of money, sees her continue to earn very little when the peep-show job falls through out of an inability to understand the required languages online. We find ourselves leaning towards Paul's strand as things develop; Olga's bedding down into a hospital ward-set groove in which elderly men living their last weeks begin to find our Olga rather attractive seeing the whole thing descend into a series of sequences shot on static, tripod mounted cameras bringing more attention to the craft of the thing than is required, whilst more often than not reminding us of Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó's rather unpleasant 2005 film Johanna. Paul's begins to become imbued with a sense of antagonism, as he falls foul of some gypsies en route and then with his stepfather when attitudes in regards to women have them clash; the dragging of Paul into his stepfather's attitudes and lifestyle in regards to women eventually leading to awkward and ill-fated altercations forcing Paul into redistributing his priorities.

There is a sense of frankness about proceedings, and I've little doubt Seidl makes the films he wants to make in spite of the cross-cultural settings and international teams behind the project; a sense of frankness evident in the film's title, a cold and inherently cutoff name balancing two opposites with little more than a cut-and-thrust 'slash' carving the two words and forcing them apart from one another. But we find it difficult to get as excited about the film as we would perhaps like; certainly, the film's sexualised content is disgraceful and constructed in an uneroitc fashion – a character's departure from proceedings as things step up a gear later on in a motel room echoes that of our own mind having already exited the scene. Additionally, cries of sexism on Seidl's behalf ought to fall on deaf ears as Paul is unwillingly dragged through a plethora of flimsy Eastern European girls; the man falling foul of his stepfather's hormonal urges around the same time as Olga herself gets caught off-guard by some of those leering aforementioned elderly men doing very little for the masculine cause in this respect. Therein lies the issue, the sense that these people are precisely the same, and yet light-years apart hammering us on the head again; the film is not without merit, but it is without an awful lot of much else.

I'm not going to write much here. I am open to dark films (in fact I tend to prefer them). But this was one of the most depressing, frustrating films I have ever seen. Long, long, long cut scenes of depressing or morbid circumstances (such as people suffering in palliative care, very raw). The director establishes the mood and the dynamic between the characters and then stays on the scene, often with minimal dialogue for 4-5 minutes - agonizingly long. This film is not an exploration of existential depression -- this film IS existential depression.

The one 'warm' scene in the film where Olga dances with the old man, felt to me like a brief smile before being sucked down a black hole - which is what this film felt like.

The sole mandate seemed to be to show that life is sh*t and then you die - mission accomplished.

A fascinating study of the lives of two individuals, heading in opposite directions. one a poor Ukrainian nurse, who seeks a better life in Austria (so she can support her family), only to end up in the most horrid jobs and a young (under-class) Austrian man, who with his seedy step-father goes to sell gum-ball machines in the Ukraine. This is more than just a snap-shot of 'East meets West', being a complex life study, within the social boundaries and desolate landscapes. Set chiefly in Eastern Ukraine and a ghastly geriatric hospital in Austria. Some might find the pace painfully slow but deep down (and in the bleakest part of the planet), the two characters completely seduced this reviewer.

By no means a happy film, it is nevertheless, so overwhelmingly well intentioned that it deserves some attention. Fortunately this fairly long (and some say slow) film is very much well worth sticking with. Frighteningly frank and 'in your face' at times, not least in the desperate sequences with the naked Ukrainian girls struggling to put their fingers where their Austrian paymasters are yelling for them to do. It no surprise that people with money will exploit those without but it seems an awful situation that the EU should allow a situation where it is more profitable for a Ukrainian nurse to travel to Austria and act as some house slave. There is not really any formal narrative flow here but we follow the aforementioned nurse going one way and a pair of Barely sane Austrians going the other way to try and sell bubble gum and gaming machines to a people that can obviously not need either. A mix of professional and no-professional actors ensure that this is gritty reality and I have managed to not even mention the incontinence pants in the Austrian geriatric ward. Illuminating, wretched and desperate but also somewhat heart-warming and vile. Good old Germans eh?

This is a dark movie with a lot of sub plots. surprisingly it's an ok movie. if you're looking for something a little outside of the mainstream norm

A nurse travels from the Ukraine to Vienna in search of employment while a couple of shiftless Austrian men make the reverse trip. The two stories are told in parallel but are not integrated, making it seem like two films spliced together because they happen to have the same settings. The main attraction here is the titillation suggested by the movie's poster, although it's not enough to sustain one's interest. The film moves at a very deliberate pace and, like its characters, wanders aimlessly. The filmmakers are trying to make a point here but it's not clear what that point is. And they take much too long to not make a point. The cinematography is nice.

I was not prepared for this film. I feel I have little to add that other reviewers have not already written. Just a few observations. Two young people needing money leave their countries: one, a woman from the former Soviet Union, the second a man from the West. Their two journeys melt into one although they never meet. Through their eyes we see the full horror of life around them. Pivotal scenes are the young man's experience of a wasted concrete landscape unfit for habitation, but is full of those enduring dire deprivation, and for the young woman her employment in a rich country which utterly degrades the poor. East and West is portrayed as being a hell on earth with death as the final escape. There is no music on the soundtrack except for what is used by those in their specific scenes. No manipulation used at all. The vision of the world we all live in ( the rich of course artificially protecting themselves ) is worthy of Samuel Beckett. Endgame totally. I believe the film to be a masterpiece - again that overused word, but I unreservedly use it. It is expertly filmed and directed with a fierce force seldom seen in film. The one thing that I object to is the poster image which seems to me a deliberate come on for the prurient. Sex and violence is in the pitiful lives portrayed but it pales before the real content of the film. which is the sadistic way humanity drains all hope out of the poor and vulnerable. Many people watching this should feel utter horror and perhaps some will examine their own consciences. Be prepared. For many years I was put off by the poster. 2007 is a while back. Life has not changed, but utterly changed by Covid-19. Hell on earth has taken a further step down. It is the most terrible thought of all!!!

OK, people say this movie is disturbing. That might be because it is the only movie of this kind they have seen (so I think). I am already experienced with this genre of semi-reality no storytelling movies, as I call them. The reason I rated this movie just with two is because since the Cannes Film Festival exists we all have seen movies of this type. I mean a plain and more than simple direction that doesn't tell any story but showing us true life in some sort. I, in my opinion, disagree with directors of this kind of movies, like Hanneke sometimes, because they try to get the most out of reality without understanding that a real thing is a plain documentary without any comments. Just by putting a camera somewhere you are already implying your point of view. There for subjective and not objective. Anyway, as I am to experienced with this type of movies I can't understand why they keep having success. there's nothing in a movie like this. You do it once or twice OK. But tell me a story now and then. Don't just grab a whole team to film something that almost everybody can do. No credit from my side. I must say that bullshit movies like Die Hard 4.0 is almost better then this and I thought it was one of the worst movies ever.

Ulrich Seidl has been an unknown director to me until now. Viewing ' Import Export ' was quite a revelation, and after viewing it twice in one day I consider it to be a masterpiece. It is unsparing in what it shows, and although it is several years old now I feel it is relevant as a portrait of the early years of our new century. It is tough to watch, and shows two young people, a woman and a man who never meet, each going in opposite directions to each other. The woman travels from the Ukraine to the West and the man from the West to the East. Their journeys which are motivated by a need for money are gruelling. Both of them are decent people, and the experiences they endure are gruelling. I do not want to give away spoilers, but the viewer has to witness cruelty towards the elderly as well as sadistic treatment towards women who sell their bodies for money. Seidl effortlessly goes from one story to another in their pitiful lives and shows how two basically innocent people are both insulted and injured in the countries they discover, as well as recalling the dead end lives they have left behind. There is no overlaying of music to manipulate the audience. and the camera is unflinching it what it shows. At times it made me think of Pasolini's ' Salo ' in its depiction of human cruelty, but in many ways it is less sensationalist although equally unsparing. Instead of an enclosed space of emotional and physical distress we see landscapes of utter desolation and when enclosed abuse beyond endurance. Moments of beauty emerge, only to disappear all too briefly, and one of them is when the young woman sings a lullaby to her child on the telephone. This scene of profound love shows that all is not lost, despite the fact that she is in the West and the child is in the East and that they may never see each other again. The acting is flawless throughout and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I urge viewers to seek it out.

I've seen this movie 4 times, and each one of them it gets better.

The movie is just simple and great taken photographs connecting 2 stories that are actually disconnected but because of the fact that they travel in different directions.

But it is the story of 2 people who are evolving, growing and also failing, fearing, etc. And those 2 people are the perfect pretext to know about other people who are mostly demons ruined because of society.

If you are in the mood for one of the best stories told with minimum resources, but beautifully placed, used, and a profound message of humanity, this is the movie you are looking for.

I saw this on TV and it was prefaced by a short interview with the director / co-writer. His aim was to show raw reality and if that meant some sequences bordered on the over extended then so be it. The longer your nose was rubbed in it (my words not his) the better you would learn the truth. Trouble is everything seemed over extended so the technique lost its impact.

Nothing in the film offended me as such, certainly not the graphic nudity of the sex-for-money scenes which were part of the films core - human exploitation, who is most degraded by it and how do you get out from under it.

In his intro the director repeatedly stated that the truth does no need to be embellished. However I felt that philosophy was an after the fact justification of a film which seemed badly wanting in terms of editorial input and basic direction.

Most scenes were in medium shot using a single camera. Maybe that's all he had. For me that single technique used in such a long film ended up distancing me from the characters. It created a peep show feel where what was promised were insights.

Although I never lost sympathy and concern for the plight of the Ukrainian nurse and some of her charges I ended not caring about almost everyone else - largely because of the 'distancing' camera work.

Many viewers already know that some people with a little money / power can be complete bastards to people with neither and desperate for either. It doesn't take over 2 hours to sell that message.

Watch it on DVD - have your thumb hovering over fast forward.

Import Export (2007) is a thought-provoking and deeply affecting film that explores the themes of migration, exploitation, and the human condition. Directed by Ulrich Seidl, the movie is a gritty and realistic portrayal of the lives of two individuals, Olga and Paul, who are struggling to find their place in the world.

The film is a stark and unflinching look at the harsh realities faced by many immigrants in Europe. Olga, a nurse from Ukraine, travels to Austria in search of a better life, only to find herself working in a meatpacking plant under grueling conditions. Meanwhile, Paul, a security guard in Vienna, seeks solace in his travels to Ukraine, where he becomes entangled in a web of corruption and exploitation.

What sets Import Export apart is its unapologetic honesty. The movie doesn't shy away from the bleakness of its subject matter, but instead confronts it head-on with raw and unfiltered scenes that are both heartbreaking and harrowing. The film's power lies in its ability to evoke a range of emotions, from empathy and compassion to outrage and disgust.

The performances in Import Export are also exceptional. The cast includes non-professional actors who bring a sense of authenticity and realism to their roles. Paul Hoffmann, who plays Paul, delivers a nuanced and nuanced performance that captures the character's sense of isolation and disillusionment.

The cinematography and direction in the movie are also commendable. Seidl's use of long takes and static shots adds to the feeling of detachment and alienation that permeates the film. The stark and desolate landscapes of Ukraine and Austria serve as a powerful metaphor for the characters' sense of displacement and disconnection.

In conclusion, Import Export is a must-see for anyone who appreciates powerful and thought-provoking cinema. The movie is a searing indictment of the injustices faced by many immigrants in Europe, and a testament to the resilience and strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity. With exceptional performances, stunning cinematography, and a deeply affecting story, this is a film that will stay with you long after the credits roll.