Import/Export

Olga is a nurse in Ukraine. Her wage is not enough to live on and she has a child. First she works in front of a camera online, then leaves it and goes to Austria. There she cleans and eventually finds work at a geriatric clinic. Paul was a security guard in Vienna; he lost his job and is in debt. He sets out east with his stepfather; they will install gum machines and gaming machines. They move through Slovakia and Ukraine. The two stories never touch; the narrative carries them in parallel and leaves the comparison to the viewer. Ulrich Seidl directs and co-wrote the screenplay. Ekateryna Rak, Paul Hofmann, Michael Thomas and Susanne Lothar are in the cast. It is an Austrian production. The film was shown in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The shoot spread over years and was done in real locations; the geriatric sections were filmed in an actual clinic with actual patients. Most of the cast are not professional actors and many scenes rest on improvisation. The matter it treats is migration in two directions; those going west for work and those going east to make money are shown at once. Seidl's style is built on fixed, symmetrical shots; the camera does not comment. The clinic sections are its most argued over side; having real patients in frame was criticised on ethical grounds. Its limit is the watching; the narrative is cold, long and gives relief nowhere. Who it is for: viewers who like European realism and hard social narrative. Who it is not for: it is uncomfortable, long, and offers no hope.