A foray into the East/West divide that Seidl has revisited 15 years later in Import/Export, this explores the borders, both physical and social, that separate people from one another. Austrian widower Sepp awkwardly courts Paula, a widow who lives just across the Czech border, but, while they live near enough that he’s able to watch her with binoculars, their relationship is jeopardised by the mounting cultural differences between the impoverished socialism of the Czech Republic and the prosperous consumerism of Austria. —http://www.ica.org.uk
Ulrich Seidl was born in Vienna in 1952 and grew up in the town of Horn in Lower Austria. He studied journalism, art history and drama in Vienna, supporting himself with odd jobs, before entering the prestigious Vienna Film Academy at the age of 26. In 1980 he made his first documentary, Einsvierzig. Following the controversy surrounding his second film, Der Ball (1982) – a wickedly satirical portrait of the graduation ball in his home town – Seidl was asked to leave the Film Academy. In 1990 he returned to the scene with the feature-length documentary Good News. Within the decade Seidl was to make seven more documentaries for cinema and television, winning much acclaim and many prizes for his work.
Hundstage – Dog Days, his first fiction film, was released in 2001 and won several important awards, beginning with the grand jury prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2001. The same year also saw the release of Zur Lage / State of… read more
