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Import/Export (2007)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
31 July 2009 (USA)
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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. | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
1 win
&
1 nomination
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User Comments:
Life without home
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Cast
(Credited cast) | Ekateryna Rak | ... | Olga |
| Paul Hofmann | ... | Pauli |
| Michael Thomas | ... | Michael |
| Maria Hofstätter | ... | Schwester Maria |
| Georg Friedrich | ... | Pfleger Andi |
| Natalya Baranova | ... | Olgas Freundin - Ukraine (as Natalija Baranova) |
| Natalja Epureanu | ... | Olgas Freundin |
| Erich Finsches | ... | Erich Schlager |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Herbert Fritsch | ... | Paulis Vater |
| Brigitte Kren | ||
| Peter Linduska | ||
| Susanne Lothar | ... | Paulis Mutter |
| Petra Morzé | ... | Mother in Family Home |
| Thomas Nash | ||
| Lidiya Oleksandrivna Savka | ||
| Anastasia Sergeyeva | ... | Hotel room prostitute |
| Dirk Stermann | ... | Ausbilder für Putzfrauen |
| Christina York | ||
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
141 min | South Korea:123 min | Germany:135 min
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Czech Republic:15 |
Germany:16 |
Hong Kong:III |
Sweden:15 |
Netherlands:12 |
South Korea:15 (cut) |
UK:18 |
Australia:R |
France:-16 |
Mexico:C
Company:
Fun Stuff
Movie Connections:
Featured in "Metropolis: Cannes 2007 - Special" (2007)
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| Full cast and crew | Company credits | External reviews |
| IMDb Drama section | IMDb Austria section | Add this title to MyMovies |
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.