Import/Export (2007)
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 30
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 5
A grim and disturbing vision from Ulrich Seidl, makes for an uncomfortable and uncompromising picture of life, that is anything but comfy and pedestrian.
Average Rating: 7/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 1
A grim and disturbing vision from Ulrich Seidl, makes for an uncomfortable and uncompromising picture of life, that is anything but comfy and pedestrian.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 1,519
My Rating
Movie Info
Director Ulrich Seidl's despairing, relentlessly downbeat social drama Import/Export unfolds against the backdrop of contemporary Europe. Olga (Ekateryna Rak) is a single mother struggling to raise her child with a very meager income from her nursing job in a Ukrainian hospital. In desperation, she takes a job as a nude webcam model for an adult entertainment outfit that caters to German men, then quickly decides that life in her town is unbearable, and ultimately leaves her child with her
May 21, 2006 Wide
Jan 26, 2010
Movienet
Cast
-
Ekateryna Rak
Olga -
Paul Hofmann
Pauli -
Michael Thomas
Michael -
Maria Hofstätter
Sister Maria -
Petra Morzé
Mother in family home -
Georg Friedrich
Nurse Andi -
Natalya Baranova
Christina (Olga's frien... -
Natalia Epureanu
Nataschka -
Erich Finsches
Erich Schlager -
Lidiya Oleksandrivna Savk...
Olga's mother -
Dmytro Andriyovich Gachko...
Olga's brother -
Oksana Ivaniva Skylarenko
Olga's baby -
Christina York
Christina (Paul's girlf... -
Brigitte Kren
Paul's mother
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (31) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (5)
The mood is as dismal as the weather in Import/Export, by Austrian auteur Ulrich Seidl.
Top CriticUlrich Seidl's Import Export is an unflinching, at times almost unbearably hard yet moral look at human exploitation.
Import Export demands we contemplate the horror and the beauty of existence in equal measure.
Seidl's film arguably offers the toughest (and toughest to stomach) portrait of individuals tempest-tossed by the currents of the new global economy.
Seidl's canny mix of professional and non-professional actors delivers a series of performances, major and minor, of genuinely heart-tugging truth and heartening humanity.
Miserable but masterful.
Import Export adds the welcome element of humanity to stand between the cruelty and humor.
There is never a moment telegraphed in the story...keeping me interested and attentive throughout its 2 hour runtime.
Eastern work ethic vs. the softer West. It is clear who Seidl sides with.
Technically, the sedate yet stunning 35mm camera is there for the ride and somehow never imposes or dominates the content. And the result is a true triumph.
Occasionally drags, but offers a relentlessly stark glimpse into the morbid, tragic life of two lost souls who haven't found happiness or prosperity.
blunt and brutal
The titular backslash of Import/Export turns out to be a vast geographical schism, crossed only intermittently by thin strands of mutual emotional anguish.
Sometimes a bit hard to stomach, but has such vividly realistic characters and situations that it can't be ignored.
Seidl is a special talent, reared on documentary and determined to get near the truth with a placidly baleful eye. You are at liberty to hate or admire his work - but you can scarcely ignore it.
At times it feels like a continuation of Lukas Moodysson's Lilya 4-ever in its catalogue of injustices and humiliations, yet, against the odds, it rewards your endurance.
The Austrian miserablist who gave us Dog Days - sharper and more mischievous in its portrait of exurbia's human excreta - delivers an essay in symmetrical despondence that seems both tidy and empty, like a trash can after street-cleaning.
It came highly recommended by The Sneak's sources, but it is much too bleak, way too long and contains far too many graphic and soulless sex scenes.
Yet his unerring eye for the absurdity of human behaviour and the rituals we invent for ourselves makes this a blackly humorous treat.
Veracity and mordant humour are all well and good, but Seidl treads a very fine line between making jokes about being sick and making sick jokes.
Import Export is a work of the utmost political importance. It is also, in its rigour and fearlessness, its sorrow and pitilessness, an outstanding artistic achievement.
Audience Reviews for Import/Export
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for Import/Export yet.
Latest News on Import/Export
July 23, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Orphan Is Mixed BagThis week at the movies, we've got an evil adoptee (Orphan, starring Vera Farmiga and Peter...
What's Hot On RT
The Last Stand, Side Effects
Trailer for new Coen Bros movie
Fast & Furious cars gallery
Blockbusters ranked!
Featured on RT
- In Pictures: The Cars of Fast & Furious 0
- Digital Multiplex: Warm Bodies and Aftershock 4
- Discover the Best-Reviewed Films in Summer Movie Scorecard 2013 0
- RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: The Last Stand and Side Effects 15
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Star Trek Softer Than Expected at #1 85
- Weekly Ketchup: Will Smith to Star in Wild Bunch Remake? 39
- Critics Consensus: Star Trek Into Darkness is Certified Fresh 107
Top Headlines
-
Which Film Franchise Has Been the Best for Female Characters?
0
-
Damon Lindelof Talks Tomorrowland
0
-
10 Movies About Really Fast Cars
0
-
Poltergeist Remake Synopsis Hints at Plot Differences
5
-
Kristen Wiig Says Welcome to Me
1
-
David Fincher's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Gets Bumped
0
-
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance Remake in the Works
0
Fresh Links
Featured
Star Trek Movies Ranked
HitFix offers their own take on the worst-to-best of the Enterprise crew's cinematic adventures.
Top 10 Star Trek Villains
Rolling Stone unveils the Enterprise's most irksome adversaries.
Celebrity Yearkbook Flashback
We'll bet you never realized how many stars were cheerleaders and high school athletes!
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Foreign Titles
- Import Export (DE)
The director and writer give us little hope in their depiction of 2 lives and how their environments constantly conspire to either keep them down or challenge their will to survive and change. It is a story at once about Eastern Europe and a story about the world's 'lower classes' and their monumental struggle against inertia and their past. It is a movie filled with images, humor, highs and lows, and, graphic scenes of sexual play that all add to the base quality of the human experience that exists not only in Eastern Europe, but, many place in the world.