Ulrich Seidl

Le bal (1982) was the reason, why I was kicked out of the Wiener Filmakademie [filmschool in Vienna]. The teachers didn't like the structure and editing and expected that the film would hurt the reputation of the academy. Show less «

[press conference for Import Export (2007) at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival] There are no limits. As for limits, you can only set limits in the situation you find yourself and you have to set them for yourself. So as a director I was responsible for the people working with me who were in front of the camera; I have to leave them their dignity and I have to know just how far I can go and how much I can ask of them and how much I can't ask of them. So it's my own responsibility but there's no well-defined limit. This film talks about frontiers a lot, it talks about boundaries, limits. But I didn't go further than Dog Days (2001) in this new film. I've told another story, a story which has got lots of value, but in a broader context, in the European context, and I concentrate all this in two stories because I think Europe is being reunified - it's grouping together. But I think that in Ukraine, things are very different from in western Europe. You shouldn't forget that this is a film, and the actors know exactly what is the intention behind the scene they're shooting but we work with a degree of improvisation and spontaneity and there are things which are not decided in advance, but when we decide to get involved in this work, I decide on it with my actors. I decide on an objective with them, and then everybody is in agreement; everybody is prepared and ready to achieve this objective. Show less «