A profoundly disturbing exercise in realism. Not the sunny days, puppies and picnics -type of flick, no. Vignettes of exploitation and graphic ins and outs of how to eke some sort of living in a hard place, yes. Yours truly knows a few Yooks (Ukrainians) who have seen hardships on the old country and do not find it cause for cinema. The lot of them drink, and they drink hard. Their stories are hauntingly familiar: They jump on a plane, land somewhere Stateside, and find themselves smack dab in the middle of menial jobs. Not to be confused with the cutesy lovey Import Eksport, Ulrich Seidl’s Import Export is not for the faint of heart.

The New York Times review: http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/movies/31import.html

This isn’t worth consuming in the same way that Bedknobs and Broomsticks is worth consuming but, if you want some gritty, dark, european cinema then this is pretty compelling if not a little depressing. It’s worth watching mainly for some really good performances that haunt you a bit afterwards. Also some of the scenes are so well observed and shot so well that the tension is almost beautiful.