Institute of Contemporary Arts

Import Export

Import Export, Dir Ulrich Seidl, Austria 2007

"an astonishing film... deeply moral and blackly funny" Sukhdev Sandhu - Daily Telegraph

"Seidl's eye for the grotesque makes him the Diane Arbus of world cinema, and this was often startling, horrible and brilliant." Peter Bradshaw - The Guardian 

A formidable and clear-eyed portrait of modern Europe from Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, the noted documentary film-maker who made his feature debut in 2001 with Dog Days. His new film, which premiered at Cannes in 2007, tells two stories - one that begins in the Ukraine and ends in Austria, and another that travels in the opposite direction. Olga, a young nurse, journeys West looking for a better life, while unemployed Paul ends up in the East with his stepfather. Seidl presents separate stories but shared experiences as his characters discover that, despite modern Europe's promise of a better life, things really are tough all over. Seidl's film is made even more searing by the potent images of its two directors of photography, Wolfgang Thaler (a close Seidl collaborator) and Ed Lachman (who's worked with Werner Herzog, Larry Clark and Todd Haynes).

Released by Trinity Filmed Entertainment.

Dir Ulrich Seidl, Austria 2007, 135 mins (digital print in Cinema 1 runs 142 mins), subtitles, Cert 18

£8 / £7 Concessions / £6 ICA Members.