Import Export

Two stories, two reciprocal trajectories. Two stories of people who are looking for a job and who lose their job - who travel to find a new start in life. Olga comes from the eastern part of Europe, where existential poverty is the order of the day. Paul is from the western part, where unemployment entails not hunger, but a loss of meaning and sense of purpose. Imagining that she'll find happiness in the west, Olga travels from the Ukraine to Austria and ends up as a cleaning lady on a hospital geriatric ward. In the search for work and meaning with his stepfather, Paul stumbles from Austria eastwards, as far as the Ukraine. Import Export tells of the search for happiness and money, the abyss of sexuality and death, and also, how to brush the teeth of a stuffed fox. Import Export is the first film that Ulrich Seidl produced with the company he founded in 2003 and his first film to be invited to compete at the Cannes Film Festival.