Import/Export

Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's bitter film offers a disturbing but compelling view of socioeconomic problems in contemporary Europe. Ukrainian single mother Olga's (Ekateryna Rak) nursing work at a decrepit hospital is both professionally and financially unrewarding. Unable to find any meaningful method of turning things around—at one point she even takes a stint as a webcam sex performer—Olga leaves her baby with her mother and takes a train to Austria in search of a better life. Meanwhile, unemployed Austrian security guard Pauli (Paul Hofmann) is heading in the opposite direction, joining his father-in-law to transport gumball machines and an outdated game arcade console to a Ukrainian customer. Both Olga and Pauli discover unsavory and unsatisfactory aspects of their new surroundings—Olga cannot land a nursing job and winds up as a janitor at a Vienna hospital, while Pauli finds nothing but poverty in Ukraine (in the film's most unsettling scene, Pauli's father-in-law hires a teenage prostitute who is subjected to brutal humiliation). Rak and Hofmann, both nonprofessional actors, offer memorable performances as the emotionally numb leads, although some viewers may find Seidl's vision too dreary (especially at 141 minutes). But while Import/Export may be viscerally harsh, the film is also a daring work by a director willing to tackle difficult subject matter. Recommended. (P. Hall)