A Ukrainian woman travels to Austria while an Austrian man travels to Ukraine for work in what could be Seidl’s finest hour as a filmmaker—this is an extraordinary ultra-realist drama about the human costs of being dispensable in the East-West European economic flows.
Review #2,674
Dir. Ulrich Seidl
2007 | Austria | Drama | 141 min | 1.66:1 | German, Russian, Slovak, Czech & English
Not rated – exceeds R21 guidelines for unsimulated sexual scenes and explicit nudity
Cast: Ekateryna Rak, Paul Hofmann, Michael Thomas
Plot: A nurse from Ukraine searches for a better life in the West, while an unemployed security guard from Austria heads East for the same reason. Both are looking for work, a new beginning, an existence, struggling to believe in themselves, to find meaning in life.
Awards: Nom. for Palme d’Or (Cannes)
International Sales: Coproduction Office
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Mature – Labour; Working-Class; Crossing Borders; European Economic Flows
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: General Arthouse
Viewed: MUBI
Spoilers: No
I think seeing this film is a watershed moment for me in the context of exploring the works of Ulrich Seidl. Import/Export could be the Austrian director’s finest hour as a filmmaker.
What an extraordinary film this is—an ultra-realist drama that puts the extreme in neorealism, one that feels even more authentic than a documentary. This is no surprise considering Seidl’s documentary roots. But what’s surprising is how revelatory Import/Export can be about the individual as a cog in the economic machine.
We are at the crossroads with two central characters: one, a Ukrainian woman, formerly a nurse, who travels West to Austria to find a job as a cleaner; the other, an Austrian man at wits’ end who travels East to Ukraine with his stepfather to find odd jobs moving furniture and in delivery.
“It’s about putting a happy face wherever we go.”
Seidl’s film is about the human costs of being dispensable in the East-West European economic flows. Capitalism has not just left them fighting to survive but bypassing them entirely. The money that they earn is the last trickle of the spring water that has almost evaporated.
Compelling edited as Seidl intercuts between these two milieus through short vignettes, and shot with an eye for the environment by Ed Lachman (better known for lensing the works of Todd Haynes) and Wolfgang Thaler (Seidl’s regular DP), Import/Export situates the individual within—and against—the vast canvas that I would describe as an architecture for the mobilising of labour.
Be it in rundown buildings, hospitals, nursing homes, etc., there is no escaping the four walls of work. Despite focusing on just two characters, Import/Export opens up a new world of understanding and empathy for the millions of unseen and underrepresented people who brave uncertainty and abuse every day as they seek greener pastures across borders.
Grade: A
Trailer:
Eternality Tan 