Import/Export

Nothing shouts ‘bleakness’ quite like snow. It’s a cinematic trait that’s been heavily employed recently, from the snow-covered minarets of Istanbul in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Uzak, to the white urban canvas of Rafi Pitt’s It’s Winter.

Ulrich Seidl’s Import/Export opens in blizzard conditions over a particularly desperate-looking corner of the Ukraine. Olga (Ekateryna Rak) is a single parent working as a nurse in the local hospital. Living in a freezing, run down flat with her mother, and battling with pitiful wages, she’s forced to do internet sex work on the side.

Meanwhile in Austria, Pauli (Paul Hofmann) breaks up with his girlfriend, loses his job and is mishandling spiralling debts. When you’re part of Europe’s economic underclass, it doesn’t matter where you are: life is a struggle and Austria – the idyllic ‘West’ migrant workers envisage – is certainly no El Dorado.

Pauli and Olga end up moving in separate directions – passing each other but never meeting. Pauli decides to stay in the Ukraine, refusing to travel back to Austria with his sex-obsessed stepfather with whom he’s been working; Olga tries to make a new life for herself in Austria.

It’s an interesting idea, exploring how workers become de-humanised – commoditised almost – in the search for stability. Topical, certainly, given Europe’s disagreement over its open border policy and populations increasingly on the move in search of the most basic of economic rights.

But ironically it’s the film’s humanity that stands out. Admittedly, in Austria Olga is mistreated by everyone from a mother whose children she looks after to a jealous nurse at the hospital where she cleans. But it makes the fleeting moments of harmony all the more touching, especially the friendship she strikes up with an elderly patient, sneaking him into a basement room for a dance as a treat.

It’s believable filmmaking. Scenes may often appear protracted to the point of being painful, but that’s because Seidl has allowed them to run their natural course. The viewer is subjected to Pauli’s stepfather humiliating a prostitute in a seedy hotel room, and a wince-inducing scrap between Olga and the jealous nurse.

As in Seidl’s previous film, Dog Days, the two protagonists are played by non-professional actors whose work taps into something quite genuine. The film is also painstakingly shot in a real geriatric ward, where the clicks, screams, prayers and incoherent ramblings create a tragicomic air. The close-ups of patients in make-up and hats for a ward party frankly portray the gracelessness and inverted childhood of old age.

So yes, Import/Export is bleak, but this isn’t a film that judges – it presents a story. And while the characters’ lives are tough, what remains with the viewer is their very human element of perseverance. They’ll take what life throws at them and somehow you know they’ll be okay.

Ed Stocker

Anticipation:

A film about narcotaficandos or logistics experts maybe? Let’s hope it’s the former.

Enjoyment:

Okay, so it’s neither of the above. A powerful piece of cinema nonetheless.

In Retrospect:

Refreshingly real and, yes, perhaps just a little bit bleak.