It's grim out east in this outstanding drama from the Austrian director of Dog Days.
Star rating ****
Dir: Ulrich Seidl
With: Ekateryna Rak, Paul Hofmann
It's grim out east in this outstanding drama from the Austrian director of Dog Days. The import of the title is Olga, a single mother and nurse who leaves her baby and soul-sapping poverty in the Ukraine for what she hopes will be a better life in Austria. The export is Paul, a twentysomething loser who can't keep a job for five minutes and is travelling east to deliver gaming machines. Ulrich Seidl doesn't flinch from showing what it means to be one of the have-nots in shiny new Europe, making Olga's story, with a brilliant debut performance from Ekateryna Rak, the better of the two. Dark and brutal as a Kiev winter, but worth the sturm and drang.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh
