Import/Export

Directed by Ulrich Seidl, starring Ekateryna Rak, Paul Hofmann, Michael Thomas, Maria Hofstatter

Import/Export is a bizarre, horrifying, challenging work, often brilliant and spectacular, often troubling and indeed objectionable. It is an example of Seidl's characteristic form of grotesque realism - part Diane Arbus, part Samuel Beckett.

This is a dual story of two unhappy souls, washed across the central European continent by the irresistible currents of international capitalism. Olga (Ekateryna Rak) is a nurse from Ukraine who journeys to well-off Austria in search of work as a nanny or a cleaner. Paul (Paul Hofmann) is an aggressive young guy with borderline special-needs who has lost his job as a security guard and owes money to various local tough guys, so he journeys away from Austria in the opposite direction. With his deeply repulsive stepfather, Michael (Michael Thomas), he goes to the frozen, desolate housing estates of Ukraine to set up hulking slot-machines. In many ways Olga and Paul are kindred lonely spirits, but there is no sentimental or fortuitous meeting. The set-pieces that Seidl produces are jaw-dropping. The snow-bound Ukrainian tenements that he finds are colossal stonehenges of post-Soviet grimness, designed by JG Ballard. Paul comes across a huge Romany community involved in prostitution, leading to docu-nightmare group scenes that are clearly quite genuine. These are not actors.

As for Olga, one might expect that she would become involved in the west's exploitative sex industry. Actually, this is what she has left behind in the Ukraine: webcam peep-porn in grisly little booths. Bored and disgusted by the work, Olga finally finds a job as a cleaner in an Austrian hospital and, though bullied by a spiteful ward-sister, played by Maria Hofstatter, she finds a human connection with a kindly patient, Erich, played by another Seidl non-professional regular, Erich Finsches.