Review of Import/Export (2007) by Codie E — 17 Jan 2010

A miserable film, hard o engage with and harder to like. At turns both sympathetic and seemingly exploitative of it's subjects. But I think when John Waters dubbed it 'Depression porn' he was perfectly right, so I think it does what it sets out to do and achieves it well enough.

Perhaps it was a glossier treatment of similar themes, but I far preferred the approach of Fatih Akin's 'The Edge of Heaven' with it's split narratives that slightly overlapped. This doesn't have the same strength of a narrative arc, but it is unflinching in it's portrayal of a Europe which is mostly overlooked.

I'm sitting right on the fence of this New European Extremism in cinema.