The Practice of Love

The orginal German title of Export’s conceptual thriller is ‘Der Praxis de Liebe’, which reveals a great deal about her particular approach to the sometime hot, sometime cold conflicts between the sexes. Arguing from the situation as she finds it on the ground, Export’s TV journalist protagonist moves from peep show exposé to her own sexual and emotional challenges as she tries to find a way to live and love in the world as it is. The two men in her heart appear differently involved in arms smuggling and conspiracy, but the real terror lies in the dirty bomb that is relationships, prone to implosion at any point. Creative camerawork keeps things intriguing, but the final shot, of a terminal descent into a windowless apartment block well, suggests that the outcome was never perhaps in question.