IMPORTS/EXPORTS
Austria, 2007, 118 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Ulrich Seidl.
This is grim film-making which many an audience will find difficult to sit through. Siedl takes on tough, documentary like topics (as in his Dog Days). This time he has two stories going, both set in a grim winter, one in Ukraine and the other in Austria, in Vienna.
It needs to be said that he includes two very graphic sequences of sexuality which some may find gross and which many will find are exploitative, especially of the women in the cast. One is at a brothel in Ukraine, detailing the performances of the women for internet customers (filmed at an actual brothel). The second (also in Ukraine) has an Austrian salesman sexually humiliating a prostitute.
Those scenes apart, the film is still grim as it shows Olga, a Ukrainian nurse leaving for Vienna and finding work, first of all in an affluent home but becoming the victim of a pampered child’s tantrum, and then finding more rewarding work as a cleaner in a hospital where the nurse in charge forbids her to make any contact with the elderly residents.
The other story is of a macho young man, Paul, who trains as a security guard but who is humiliated on the job. He drifts but then works for his stepfather, delivering goods in Slovakia and in Ukraine.
There are two satiric interludes where the young man attends a course on how to answer job applications and the woman goes to a pep talk on the details of cleaning facilities.
The film does not end. It just stops. With Olga standing in a corridor in Vienna and Paul seeking work in Ukraine. Both are imports/exports.
1.Impact of the film? Grim realism? Ugliness and brutality? Human nature, strengths and weaknesses? Exploitation or not exploitation?
2.The Ukrainian settings, the winter? Poor homes, apartments, the brothel, the hospital? The background of industry, smoke? The clubs? The hotels? The comfortable and the uncomfortable? The contrast with Austria, affluence? Homes, hospitals? The visit to Slovakia? The whole film and its wintry settings? The range of the musical score?
3.The realism, the naturalism, its effect?
4.The two-storey structure, the two ways from Ukraine to Austria and from Austria to Ukraine? The contrast with the two ways of life? The endings for Paul and Olga? Hope or not?
5.The graphic sequences, the sexuality, the treatment of women, exploitation? The effect on the whole film?
6.Olga and her work as a nurse, walking to and from work, with the baby and the other members of the staff, at home, her mother and child? Her friend, going to the brothel? Her watching the internet sex, the performance of the women? Her going herself? Her letter to Austria, her leaving Ukraine, in the night, her mother’s farewell?
7.Arrival by train, her friend at the station, a place to stay, going to work, cleaning in the house, the affluent mother, the boy and his tantrum about the mobile phone, playing in the snow with the children, suddenly being sacked? Joining the cleaners, at the hospital, her kindliness to the patients, the head nurse rebuking her, saying she wasn’t qualified, her reply that she was qualified in Ukraine? Combing the old lady’s hair? With the men, talking, the old man and his infatuation with her, taking him to dance, his promise of marriage, his death, her being at the party, the fight with the head nurse, the hard attitudes of the Austrians? Her future, alone in the corridor? A religious woman, her prayers and her hope?
8.The glimpse of Austria and its attitude towards migrants from eastern Europe?
9.Paul’s story: the hard training for the security guards, the overseer and his punches, the exercises? Paul, alone, his practice boxing, tough, bodybuilding, with his stepfather? At work, security? His being mugged, stripped, humiliated and its effect? His buying the dog, taking it to his girlfriend, his obtuseness in seeing how frightened she was? His self-centredness, owing Michael money and Michael’s demands, his friend at the railway station, trying to con him, trying to con a man to get money out of him to pay for the drinks? His attending the seminar on motivation and how to apply for jobs? His mother, seeing her dance with Michael, at home for her birthday, her talking about the gift? His going to Slovakia and working with Michael, working hard, the discussions about sex, Michael, infidelity to his mother? In the Ukraine, the club, the drinking, the dancing, going to the room, Michael and the prostitute, Paul wanting the money, walking out on Michael, seeking work, not being employed? Staying in Ukraine?
10.Michael, his attitude towards his wife, towards Paul, stepfather, nice, but hard, wanting the money back, hard work, on his travels, brutish, his treatment of women – and the echoes of internet sex sequences?
11.The focus on different aspects of work, hard work, employment and unemployment?
12.Issues of motivation, the seminar for applicants for jobs, the woman enacting the phone call and her being praised? The cleaners and their being instructed how to clean, bacteria, the different mops etc?
13.The emphasis on sex and sexuality, the women and their earning a living in the brothel, the girls and their practice, the language of the customers on the internet, the prostitutes in the rooms in the clubs? Male brutality, brutal words, behaviour, what they demanded of women? The women agreeing but allowing themselves to be exploited and humiliated?
14.The film simply stopping, it not reaching a conclusion – a grim slice of life?
