Import/Export 2007

Olga is a Ukrainian nurse from Eastern Ukraine who struggles to support herself and her child. Facing financial strain, she takes a second job in internet adult entertainment to make ends meet, and eventually leaves her homeland for Vienna, Austria. In the city, she finds work as a housekeeper for a wealthy family and ends up living in their home. When the woman of the family grows suspicious of her, Olga is fired and must seek new employment. She then takes a job as a cleaner at a geriatric hospital, where life takes another turn. There, she forms a complicated bond with an elderly man named Erich, who asks her to marry him so she can gain Austrian citizenship. Olga accepts, hoping this would secure her future, but Erich dies of a heart attack before their wedding can take place.

Pauli is a young Viennese man who shares his life with his mother and his stepfather. He keeps a large dog named Caesar and trains in martial arts, which gives him a sense of discipline and purpose. He earns a living as a security guard at a shopping complex, yet loses the job after a confrontation with a rowdy group of drunken Turks who cuff him and strip him of his clothes. This incident strains his already fragile relationships; his girlfriend ends things, and Pauli also owes money to several people, including his stepfather, Michael. Michael then ropes him into a trip to Ukraine to set up video gambling machines. On the way, they pause in a sparse Romani neighborhood in Košice, Slovakia, where Pauli tries to hire a prostitute but cannot agree on a price with the pimps, who pursue him back to his van.

In Ukraine, they continue to Kyiv’s neighboring areas, arriving in Uzhhorod, where they rent a hotel room and attempt to pick up girls at a bar. When Pauli returns to the room to borrow money from Michael to settle his tab, he discovers that Michael has brought a prostitute along and forces Pauli to watch as the man humiliates her before Pauli can leave. The following day, Pauli parts ways with Michael’s company and searches for work at a local market, but finds no opportunities. The film closes with a somber image of Pauli walking along a long country road, hitchhiking and weighing whether to head back to the West or to press further into Ukraine, a moment that captures the uncertainty and tension that marks both his journey and Olga’s.