Import/Export (2007)

Recommended

Austria/France/Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Import Export

Director: Ulrich Seidl

Writers: Veronika Franz, Ulrich Seidl

Cinematographers: Edward Lachman, Wolfgang Thaler

Cast: Ekateryna Rak, Paul Hofmann, Michael Thomas, Maria Hofstätter, Georg Friedrich, Natalya Baranova, Natalja Epureanu, Erich Finsches

As disturbing and accusatory as any of his other films (but here with just the merest hint of humanity to leaven things a little), arch misanthropist Seidl’s first fiction work since the excellent Dog Days (2001) – telling two parallel stories of the exploitation of poor eastern Europeans, taking a jaundiced eye look at the sex industry, immigration, inequality, and all manner of other evils – proves to be a work of grubby, guilt-inducing power, which will leave most of its viewers in need of a good, long shower. Iain.Stott