Distinct Austrian hardcore documentary-maker Ulrich Seidl post yet another contribution in the public debate with new Import/Export_. Consequent in his documentarish narrative, Seidl continues to portray different fates of life as he has done predominantly throughout career (_Dog Days was last awarded with some festival fame in Venice). This time the story which needs to be told is about Olga and Paul. Olga lives a rundown life in a shared dug-out with mum and a colic infested infant somewhere in an Ukrainian suburb. The boyfriend is assumed missing and frankly, Olga seem to have second doubts about her life choices. She fantasies about something better. A life in the west. Meanwhile, the identity of Paul, an Austrian 20′s-something is revealed. His life hasn’t quite turned out the way he expected it to either, and somewhat lost in this crisis, he takes of with his unpleasant step-dad to the Eastern Europe to sell vendor machines.

It is, as film title suggest a story out of Austria (export), and one going in (import). The context is being set to a vulgarian capitalism system which is based entirely on the exploiting of lower classes in order to achieve your own social prestige. But a certain point is also set regarding us humans, in the aftermath of globalization, appears more and more as merchandise that can be bought to the right price. Despite that Paul and Olga are already poor and of lower class, Seidl is yet to find means to let them humiliate or be humiliated with. The journey that takes Paul and his step-dad to Ukraine exposes them to a truly poor world, not only economical but also in social. A world where women are depicted as “easily accessible” for a smaller sum of cash, and where the people in general seems to fit the common master-servant role.

As for Olga, Seidl has found one final class in the system which is even lower in rank than the one as a woman, at least for us westerners: the elderly. On her final destination, she is finding herself cleaning up vomit and faeces after Alzheimer patients in an Austrian hospital (ironically, since her starting point in Ukraine was not far from the same position). It is crystal clear that like the women that is being looked down on in the patriarchal prostitution system in the east, the elderly and ill are as equal to us in the west – they are completely helpless.

The paths of the two protagonist never cross. Much relies on the fact that this is no drama based on love, affection or relations – quite the contrary. Neither Paul’s or Olga’s relations are being looked into very much. Not much time is even spent explaining what kind of personalities they are. They are simply merchandise in a system. The personality of Paul is however exposed to certain extent when he is contrasted to his step-dad. This is best depicted in one of the closing scenes, where the step-father has brought up a hottie from the street to the shabby hotel room which they reside in. She is probably not even a prostitute, just glad that a wealthy western guy with money has shown an interest – and therefore she is willing to do jut about anything. Michael gets her on her knees, bark like a dog and literary undress (an equal scene to the one in the brothel where Olga used to work earlier in the film). Seidl’s severe comment on the modern, blunt capitalist society couldn’t be more striking. But Paul is unsure, he kind of laughs it off and doesn’t seem to realize the situation. His view could be seen as an universal opinion of today’s youth, which by all means may understand – but easily trivialize instead of joining up in the struggle for a better world.