Reviews

various french philosophers provide background commentary regarding the German philosopher Heidegger and Holderlein's poem "The Ister", which has something to do with the ancient Greek name for a portion of the Danube river. While the philosophers are commenting, we see images of the various portions of the river (in Romania, ex-Yugoslavia, Austria, etc), and images of the countries that it passes through. If my description sounds vague, it's because, as an average lay person, i found this movie very hard to understand, i could not follow 3 hours of philosophical expounding, in French no less. At least half the audience walked out of the film, probably feeling the same as me. I stuck it out, and enjoyed some of the imagery, and even some of the philosophy, but, the dialogue became so esoteric at points, that i found myself asking "is this for real?"!

This is a well-made, powerful film addressing the dynamic between union factory workers and management in a suburban French factory. The director makes use of many non-actors, like the union rep (who is a union rep in real life) which lends the film an almost documentary-like feel. I thought the acting was extremely real and powerful and this potentially boring subject matter kept me captivated to the end. I highly recommend this film.