... fierce humanism in the face of a world shaped by market logic and humiliation.

| Oct 9, 2017

Import Export adds the welcome element of humanity to stand between the cruelty and humor.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 5, 2010

There is never a moment telegraphed in the story...keeping me interested and attentive throughout its 2 hour runtime.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 21, 2010

Eastern work ethic vs. the softer West. It is clear who Seidl sides with.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 18, 2010

Technically, the sedate yet stunning 35mm camera is there for the ride and somehow never imposes or dominates the content. And the result is a true triumph.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 6, 2009

Occasionally drags, but offers a relentlessly stark glimpse into the morbid, tragic life of two lost souls who haven't found happiness or prosperity.

| Original Score: 6.0/10 | Aug 4, 2009

The mood is as dismal as the weather in Import/Export, by Austrian auteur Ulrich Seidl.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 31, 2009

Ulrich Seidl's Import Export is an unflinching, at times almost unbearably hard yet moral look at human exploitation.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 31, 2009

blunt and brutal

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 30, 2009

Import Export demands we contemplate the horror and the beauty of existence in equal measure.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 30, 2009

The titular backslash of Import/Export turns out to be a vast geographical schism, crossed only intermittently by thin strands of mutual emotional anguish.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 28, 2009

Seidl's film arguably offers the toughest (and toughest to stomach) portrait of individuals tempest-tossed by the currents of the new global economy.

| Jul 21, 2009

Sometimes a bit hard to stomach, but has such vividly realistic characters and situations that it can't be ignored.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 3, 2008

Seidl is a special talent, reared on documentary and determined to get near the truth with a placidly baleful eye. You are at liberty to hate or admire his work - but you can scarcely ignore it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 3, 2008

Bafflingly, this film leaves you not knowing whether to kill yourself, cry, walk out or laugh.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 3, 2008

At times it feels like a continuation of Lukas Moodysson's Lilya 4-ever in its catalogue of injustices and humiliations, yet, against the odds, it rewards your endurance.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 3, 2008

The Austrian miserablist who gave us Dog Days - sharper and more mischievous in its portrait of exurbia's human excreta - delivers an essay in symmetrical despondence that seems both tidy and empty, like a trash can after street-cleaning.

| Oct 3, 2008

It came highly recommended by The Sneak's sources, but it is much too bleak, way too long and contains far too many graphic and soulless sex scenes.

| Oct 3, 2008

Yet his unerring eye for the absurdity of human behaviour and the rituals we invent for ourselves makes this a blackly humorous treat.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 3, 2008

Veracity and mordant humour are all well and good, but Seidl treads a very fine line between making jokes about being sick and making sick jokes.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 3, 2008