Import Export

Both in Austria and in Ukraine, cold, snowy winters, gloomy and cold people. So it looks at first glance, and it seems that in completely different regions, life is not so very different. The Ukrainian nurse and single mother Olga lives in a provincial town, where her salary is regularly underpaid. A friend offers her to earn money in the field of virtual sex with foreigners through a webcam, and Olga, overcoming disgust, agreed, but then she receives an invitation from another friend who had previously moved to Austria. Without hesitation for a minute, she says goodbye to the child, who remains in the care of her mother, and arrives at the place where she works as a cleaner, but almost immediately loses her job. Then she is taken to work in a villa, but the landlady's son accuses her of theft, and she is again fired. Then she goes to the hospital for the elderly, where her problems are openly jealous of the nurse (firstly, because the cleaner who is lower in status is better able to treat patients and is respected among them, and secondly because the fact that she enjoys attention among the native Austrians, not only the elderly). The seemingly fragile Olga, however, has a strong character.

Meanwhile, a young unemployed man from Vienna, Paul, is not much better. Caught alone with the gang and losing shape, Paul loses his usual job as a security guard, and is unable to pay off his growing debts to friends, acquaintances, and even his stepfather. The latter (the voice of which the viewer has already heard in episodes of virtual sex with Ukrainians) invites him to go to work in Ukraine , where there are still buyers for outdated slot machines. Thus, Paul can not only earn some money, but also for some time to hide from creditors. On the way, he barely escapes from the hands of gypsies, experiences a sexual adventure at the Intourist Hotel, and finally runs away from his stepfather and hitchhikes to go further in Ukraine in search of work.

Ulrich Seidl planned to make a travel trilogy: the first film is about sexual tourism, the second is about mass tourism, the third is about Alpine.

“Export-import” is the first in the trilogy. The picture was shot for three years; during this time Seidl traveled to Eastern Europe, visiting Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania and Ukraine, selecting field surveys and clarifying his plan. Most of all he was struck by Eastern Ukraine (Donbass), where he saw traces of desolation and the collapse of largely still Soviet life.

For advertising purposes, Arthousetraffic published excerpts from the diary of Klaus Priding, who was an assistant to the director and producer Ulrich Seidl. He described how they rented in the Uzhgorod hotel Transcarpathia and were “caught between Ukrainian hooligans and corrupt semi-criminal guards (...), and people insulted us and threatened us. Once we had to call the police, who immediately began to extort money for what would save us from the drunken hooligans who terrorized us. ”

Pridding also recalled the “Donetsk Mafia”, which gave them permission to shoot at the Enakievo Metallurgical Plant: “After a heated discussion with one of her local (Donetsk mafia) bosses, accompanied by generous libations that had a serious impact on my health, we managed to get permission.” However, in the end, Seidl generally decided to abandon full-scale shooting, and the mafia boss had to hand in a bottle of expensive brandy to leave them alone. ^[one]

• Ekaterina Rak - Olga (nurse in Ukraine, cleaning lady in Austria)
• Paul Hofmann - Pauli, an unemployed guard
• Michael Thomas - Michael stepfather Pauli
• Natalia Baranova - Olga's Ukrainian friend
• Natalia Epurenuu - Olga's Vienna friend
• Maria Hofstetter - nurse Maria
• Georg Friedrich - Andy Nurse
• Erich Finhes - Erich Schlager

The film caused a heated discussion. In particular, the Austrians, whom Ulrich Seidl had previously irritated with too frank a demonstration of the reverse side of the country's public life, did not like the film in the majority.

Constructive criticism diverges in opposite directions. Some say that the film is too long and too vulgar, too cruel. Others pay attention to the realism and almost documentary accuracy of everything depicted (especially since Ulrich Seidl used to shoot documentaries), such as the scene where Olga’s mother puts fireproof brick in the oven to heat the apartment in 30-degree frost, or terrifying types of houses in which Slovak gypsies live, bringing them to an almost unusable state. Almost all participants in the film are not professional film actors.

Tobias Book of Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “This film is“ serious work. ” “Import-export” is a film showing snowstorms in Ukraine, or Austrian bureaucratic hospitals, or the lowlands of heroes, but all this gives the film strength that otherwise would not manifest itself. ” This film was one of the best in the competition for the Golden Palm Branch. ^[2]

The film was not ignored by the Ukrainian press.

Denis Ivanov, director of Arthouse Traffic, said: “The film is really extreme. It is extreme, on the one hand, for the Ukrainian audience, since it contains a Ukrainian theme. And on the other hand, a hospital for the elderly is a metaphor for the life of Europeans, where everyone is being looked after, everyone is fine, but this is a home for the elderly, from which all living things have practically gone. ” ... The film contains many Ukrainian panoramas. Especially the director liked the Donbass - with gloomy factories, shabby high-rises and bars. “Import-Export” is a cruel film, with many spicy scenes and without a happy ending. This is the director’s intention - the viewer must be uncomfortable in order to think. ^[3]

• https://web.archive.org/web/20131029201025/http://www.arthouse.ru/news.asp?id=4217