Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Import-Export Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 8, 2010

Nominated for Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's "Import Export" (2007) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Trinity Home Entertainment. The only supplemental features on the disc are the film's original theatrical trailer and an excellent interview with Ulrich Seidl recorded for Film4 in 2008. With optional English subtitles. Region-Free. Please be advised that the film contains disturbing footage that is not appropriate for minors!

The Lost World of United Europe

The two protagonists in Import Export are desperate people. One of them is a Ukrainian nurse, Olga (Ekateryna Rak), who leaves her baby to her mother and goes to Austria looking for work. The other is a young Austrian man, Pauli (Paul Hofmann), who can't keep his job and ends up looking for a new one in Ukraine. Olga and Pauli never meet, but as they travel across Europe both eventually come to the same realization - they have become "dispensable people."

We first meet Olga at a hospital in Ukraine where she attempts to get her monthly salary but is given only 30% of it because there isn't enough money to pay all of her colleagues. Devastated, she visits an old friend who has started working in an online pornographic studio and asks if there are any openings. The business is booming, so Olga is immediately hired. After a few live sessions, however, Olga decides that online pornography isn't for her. She packs her bags, tells her mother to take care of her baby and heads to Austria looking for work.

Pauli is jobless, without any savings, and living in Austria. His stepfather does not like him. His mother does not care what he does. He owns money to a lot of people, including a shady character who swears that next time they meet it would be a day Pauli will never forget. After a few grueling auditions Pauli finally gets a break and scores a job with a local security company, but is immediately mugged by a group of thugs and then fired. On the next day, he breaks up with his girlfriend, but out of the blue his stepfather asks him if he would be willing to help him transport a few gumball machines to Slovenia and Ukraine.

Olga arrives in Austria where an old friend helps her get a job as a maid. A few days later, however, she is fired because "that's how it is in this country." Olga then gets a job as a cleaner in a geriatric ward, where she befriends a few old men and seriously upsets a nurse who thinks that Olga might steal the man she likes and marry him for papers.

Pauli and his stepfather go to East Europe and begin installing their gumball machines. They visit some seriously creepy places, including a gipsy ghetto where Pauli is offered to sleep with a drugged girl. In Ukraine, after an exhausting day Pauli and his stepfather check into what once must have been a classy socialist hotel. At the bar, they befriend a lonely girl who agrees to come to their room and entertain them in exchange for a few euros. When Pauli's stepfather goes too far with his sexual requests, however, Pauli decides to leave him.

Ulrich Seidl’s Import Export is as uncompromising as Gaspar Noe's Irreversible. Unlike Irreversible, however, Import Export is not a subversive film. What Seidl shows us is real - there are no special effects enhancing the ugly and the disturbing, and the actors in the film are actually ordinary people.

Even before Import Export, Seidl had the reputation of a director who isn't afraid to film what most other directors would not even consider filming. He has been described by some as a sadist looking for attention (Cannes), but his films - and in particular his Hundstage a.k.a Dog Days, which won the Grand Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2001 - are clearly well thought of and addressing issues that most of us willingly choose to ignore.

Seidl is not an abstract philosopher. He isn't a moralist either. He sees life and films it as it is - ugly and unfair. He does not expect us to like his films; rather he expects us to remember them. Hopefully, one day, when we see enough of them, we'll finally react to the issues they address.

Import-Export Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Ulrich Seidl's Import Export arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Trinity Home Entertainment.

Before I address the quality of the transfer, I would like to quickly point out that Import Export was shot on Super 16 (16 mm - Kodak Vision II) and therefore there are a number of natural limitations with the image. Import Export has a cold yet soft look, with contrast levels that vary greatly from location to location. For example, the Ukrainian footage looks mostly blueish, with notably weak blacks. The Austrian footage looks mostly greenish, with slightly stronger blacks. Fine object detail also varies, and many of the indoor scenes also reveal mild digital noise. Mild edge edging also pops up here and there, but more than likely this is something that is inherited from the original source.

I did not notice any alarming pixelating, or serious stability issues. I also did not see any background flickering. Furthermore, when blown through a digital projector, Import Export reveals a fluid, soft but stable look that I believe is in sync with Ulrich Seidl's vision. Finally, I did not detect any large cuts, marks, or stains to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. Please note that there is no PAL content preceding the disc's main menu).

Import-Export Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The back cover of this Blu-ray disc insists that Import Export arrives with two audio tracks, a German/Russian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and German/Russian/Ukrainian Stereo 2.0, but my disc contains only one audio track - German/Russian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Trinity Home Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

Import Export is a dialog-driven feature with strong organic qualities. The dialog is clean and mostly easy to follow, but dynamic levels certainly vary a lot. With a few minor exceptions, the surround channels remain inactive; there aren't any strong ambient effects that you would hear in Import Export either. The film also lacks a strong music score. On the other hand, I did not detect any purely technical flaws to report in this review. With other words, the German/Russian/Ukrainian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track does exactly what it must - it replicates what was created by Ulrich Seidl and his team.

Import-Export Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: The supplemental features listed below are encoded in 720p. Therefore, they are perfectly playable on all Region-A PS3s and SAs.

Interview - an interview with director Ulrich Seidl, recoded in London on September 25, 2008 for Film4. Here the director answers a series of questions about the history of his film, its message, the social political status quo in West and East Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the thoughts and feelings he aims to express through his films, etc. In German, with imposed English subtitles. (25 min, 720p).

Trailer - the original theatrical trailer for the film. (2 min, 720p).

Import-Export Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bold and uncompromising, Ulrich Seidl's Import Export offers a bleak and genuinely disturbing look at borderless Europe. I would also like to specifically point out that there isn't even a hint of political correctness in this film - so be prepared when you sit down to watch it. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of British distributors Trinity Home Entertainment, is competent. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.