About Import Export

Import Export is a 2007 Austrian film that is written by Veronika Franz and Ulrich Seidl. Then also directed by Ulrich Seidl.

This film follows the lives of two people looking for a better life in different countries. The first is Olga (Played by Ekateryna Rak) a nurse from the Ukraine. The second is Paul (Played by Paul Hofmann) an unemployed security guard from Austria.

The film opens with Olga going to work at a hospital in the snow. Her job doesn’t pay enough to support herself and her child. So she gets a second job working doing internet pornography. She eventually leaves her homeland by herself and travels to Vienna, Austria, in search of a better life. She finds work at first as a housekeeper. But after the mother of the household gets jealous of her and sacks her on the grounds of suspected theft. She then ends up working as a cleaner at a geriatric hospital. Striking up friendship in the most unlikely place.

Paul on the other hand is first seen going through training to become a security guard. He gets a job guarding a shopping center but soon gets fired after a gang of drunk turks cuff him and strip him of his clothes. Paul takes on a job with his step father Michael (Played by Michael Thomas) taking a gambling machine to the Ukraine. On the way there they stop in a Roma Gypsy neighborhood in kosice Slovakia where Paul try’s to hire a prostitute but cant agree on the age or price. When they arrive in the Ukraine will Paul finally having enough and walk away.

My Review

This film is suppose to make you think and get a reaction from you. It forces you to look in to your own back yard. The look at the 2 individual lives that this focus on with the strange twists and turns their lives take that lead them too each other starting point. Veronika Franz and Ulrich Seidl show us a film is filled with humour, highs and lows, extensive graphic sex scene that really make you thank not only about the way Eastern Europe is but all over the world. The way that not only bullying and racism against these two in each others country is indeed reflected all over the world. But also the way we treat young and old. It helps to question a lot of practices that are still used through out the world. This is a rough film that is not easy viewing that many will find  problem with namely the touching on child prostitution and elderly but in the real world this is what happens. Thankfully Veronika Franz and Ulrich Seidl kept as close to real life s possible.

I therefore am giving this film 4 stars out of 5 🌟🌟🌟🌟