Import/Export
| Import/Export | |
|---|---|
_Film_Poster.jpg) | |
| Directed by | Ulrich Seidl |
| Produced by | Ulrich Seidl |
| Starring | Ekateryna Rak Paul Hofmann Michael Thomas Natalja Baranova Natalja Epuraneu |
Release date |
|
Running time | 141 minutes |
| Country | Austria |
| Languages | German Russian Slovak |
Import/Export is an Austrian drama film by the director Ulrich Seidl from 2007. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival[1] and won the Grand Prix - Golden Apricot reward at the Yerevan International Film Festival. The film was shot in Vienna, Ukraine, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia from 2005 until May 2007 on 16mm film.[2] Simultaneously, the film follows a nurse from Ukraine searching for a better life in the West and an unemployed security guard from Austria heading East for the same reason.
Plot
Olga is a
nurse does not pay well enough for her to support herself and her baby, and she gets a second job doing internet pornography. She eventually leaves her homeland and travels to Vienna, Austria
where she finds a job as a housekeeper at a rich family's home, where she also lives. The woman of the family suspects her of stealing and sacks her. She is then employed as a cleaner at a geriatric hospital. She develops a relationship with an elderly man named Erich and he asks her to marry him. She accepts as she knows this will gain her Austrian citizenship. However, Erich dies of a heart attack before they can marry.
Pauli is a young man from
pimps, and they chase him back to his van. When they arrive in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, they rent a hotel room and try to pick up girls at a bar. When Pauli goes back to his room to borrow money from Michael to pay his tab, he finds that Michael has a prostitute. Michael insists Pauli watches him humiliate the prostitute before he can leave. The next day, Pauli leaves Michael's company and searches for work at a local market, where he fails to find any. The last we see of him is when he is walking along a long country road, hitchhiking
, either back to the West or further into Ukraine.
Cast
- Ekateryna Rak: Olga
- Paul Hofmann: Pauli
- Michael Thomas: Michael, Pauli's stepfather
- Natalja Baranova: Olga's friend (Ukraine)
- Natalja Epuraneu: Olga's friend (Vienna)
- Maria Hofstätter: Sister Maria
- Georg Friedrich: Orderly Andi
- Erich Finches: Erich Schlager
- Dirk Stermann: Assessment trainer
References
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Import Export". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
- ^ "Import Export (2007) - IMDb". IMDb.
External links
- Import/Export at IMDb
