Import/Export

2007

2h 15m

Drama

List

84%

Tomatometer

32 Reviews

76%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

Olga (Ekateryna Rak) is a single mother whose low-paying hospital nursing job isn't enough to support her baby. With few options in her small Ukrainian town, she starts working as a nude model and soon finds herself in increasingly desperate situations. Thousands of miles away, Pauli (Paul Hofmann), who has just lost his job as a mall security guard, begins working with his sleazy stepfather. As they travel to Austria, Pauli grows distant and searches for a way out.

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Critics Consensus

A grim and disturbing vision from Ulrich Seidl, makes for an uncomfortable and uncompromising picture of life, that is anything but comfy and pedestrian.

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V.A. Musetto

New York Post

The mood is as dismal as the weather in Import/Export, by Austrian auteur Ulrich Seidl.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 31, 2009

Full Review

Manohla Dargis

New York Times

Ulrich Seidl's Import Export is an unflinching, at times almost unbearably hard yet moral look at human exploitation.

Rated: 4.5/5

Jul 31, 2009

Full Review

Keith Uhlich

Time Out

Import Export demands we contemplate the horror and the beauty of existence in equal measure.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 30, 2009

Full Review

Christoph Huber

Cinema Scope

... fierce humanism in the face of a world shaped by market logic and humiliation.

Oct 9, 2017

Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Import Export adds the welcome element of humanity to stand between the cruelty and humor.

Rated: 3/4

Feb 5, 2010

Full Review

Robin Clifford

Reeling Reviews

There is never a moment telegraphed in the story...keeping me interested and attentive throughout its 2 hour runtime.

Rated: B+

Jan 21, 2010

Full Review

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Audience Member

So depressing, it actually makes you feel happier about your life...

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Ulrich Seidl got an eye to capture the drama of the real world, the struggle to live of the young and the old.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It's good that people as Ulrich Seidl exist so there is someone who can remind us what no one seems to realize anymore - the world of sunny careless holidays and fancy stores is not really the world we are living in. The reality as it really looks like is shown in his movies.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A bleak, uncompromising and ultimately very depressing social drama which may be hard to stomach, but even harder to turn away from.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Elocuente, con un estilo propio y perturbador.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

From Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, and nominated for the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 2007, this is a dark, unsettling drama that has the tone and structure of a horror film, but it shows two parallel stories of people unsatisfied in their lives and how moving on can have polarising consequences. It's dark, quite graphic both in terms of sex and violence, but it's very compelling. It begins in Eastern Ukraine, in a slum hung over from the Soviet era, where nurse Olga (Ekateryna Rak) is unsatisfied in her life, and she doesn't get paid enough as a nurse, being diddled out of pay. So, she turns to internet porn, which is horrible. So, she packs up, and moves out to Vienna, where she gets a job as a cleaner in a hospital, where she falls for senile, geriatric patient Erich Schlager (Erich Finches). Meanwhile in Vienna, hot-headed Pauli trains to be a security guard, but is sacked when he's mugged by Turkish drunkards, penniless, and owing money to his stepfather Michael (Michael Thomas), but they get a job in delivering old videogame machines to the Ukraine, where Pauli's attempt at hiring a prostitute end up with him on his own in the snowy wilderness. It's a dark drama, but very compelling and painting a picture of a world in the Ukraine which is seldom seen on film, but it's showing a real plight many people face when they think moving to another country can hide the fact that they made a hash of things in their homeland. It's almost like a Ken Loach film, only more bleaker, and it's still uncertain by the end if things get better or worse.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

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Ulrich Seidl

Director

Ekateryna Rak

Olga

Paul Hofmann

Actor

Maria Hofstätter

Actor

Georg Friedrich

Actor

Herbert Fritsch

Actor

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Synopsis

Olga (Ekateryna Rak) is a single mother whose low-paying hospital nursing job isn't enough to support her baby. With few options in her small Ukrainian town, she starts working as a nude model and soon finds herself in increasingly desperate situations. Thousands of miles away, Pauli (Paul Hofmann), who has just lost his job as a mall security guard, begins working with his sleazy stepfather. As they travel to Austria, Pauli grows distant and searches for a way out.

Director: Ulrich Seidl
Screenwriter: Ulrich Seidl, Veronika Franz
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Oct 31, 2014
Runtime: 2h 15m