Import/Export
Two economically stranded Europeans cross borders in opposite directions, exposing the human cost of work, migration, and survival.
Overview
Two lives collide in the search for a better future, revealing the harsh realities of exploitation and desire.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- bleak
- austere
- uncompromising
- serious film night
- arthouse cinema viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly praised the film's uncompromising social realism while emphasizing its grim, disturbing, and deliberately uncomfortable view of migration and economic precarity.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Olga leaves Ukraine for nursing work in Central Europe while Pauli travels east after losing his security job.
The film presents unemployment, illegal prostitution, nursing-home labor, and exploitation in a grim, uncomfortable register.
Olga's westward journey and Pauli's eastward journey unfold as contrasting but thematically linked trajectories.
The plot connects migration, prostitution, precarious employment, and care work through unequal economic power.
Films like Import/Export, and why
Lourdes
shared austere social realism, labor precarity, and migration across Europe
The Death of Maria Malibran
shared bleak migrant experience, institutional exploitation, and uncompromising realism
La promesse
shared transnational displacement, economic desperation, and observational European drama
Rosetta
shared stark working-class portraiture, moral unease, and emotionally restrained direction
Movie Details
- Director
- Ulrich Seidl
- Release Date
- 2007-10-18
- Runtime
- 135 min
- Rating
- 6.9 / 10 (131)
Cast
- Ekateryna Rak
- Paul Hofmann
- Michael Thomas
- Susanne Lothar
- Natalija Baranova
- Natalja Epureanu
- Maria Hofstätter
- Georg Friedrich
- Erich Finsches
- Johannes Nussbaum
Common questions
- What is Import/Export about?
- Two economically stranded Europeans cross borders in opposite directions, exposing the human cost of work, migration, and survival.
- What is Import/Export like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Import/Export as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Import/Export violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Import/Export as mild.
- What did critics think of Import/Export?
- Critics broadly praised the film's uncompromising social realism while emphasizing its grim, disturbing, and deliberately uncomfortable view of migration and economic precarity.
- Which films are like Import/Export?
- Films with a similar feel include Lourdes, The Death of Maria Malibran, La promesse, and Rosetta.
- How long is Import/Export?
- Import/Export runs 135 minutes.
