Import Export

What to do, as a young man suddenly out of a job? How can a young woman, without any qualifications and with a child, improve her position in the world? These seemingly simple questions lie at the heart of Import Export, in which Olga from Ukraine seeks a better life in Vienna, while Viennese Pauli transports rejected gambling machines to Ukraine.

Seidl worked with two cameramen on Import Export: Wolfgang Thaler – who previously worked on Seidl’s documentary Jesus, du weißt – and Ed Lachman. In an interview, Lachman praised Seidl’s talent for ‘visual metaphors’, as well as his ability to tell moral tales ‘without becoming moralistic’. Like his countryman Michael Haneke, Seidl elicits strong reactions; in his documentaries he includes re-enactions of real events, interweaving these with documentary footage. And vice versa, in his feature films the director strives for a documentary level of authenticity.