8 /10 1 Votes
4.2/5 Fandor Running time 189 minutes Initial DVD release 3 November 2009 (USA) | 7.1/10 IMDb 88% Rotten Tomatoes Country Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Directed by David BarisonDaniel Ross Starring Bernard StieglerJean-Luc NancyPhilippe Lacoue-LabartheHans-Jürgen Syberberg Initial release 24 September 2004 (United Kingdom) Producers David Barison, Daniel Ross Cast Bernard Stiegler, Philippe Lacoue‑Labarthe, Jean‑Luc Nancy, Hans‑Jürgen Syberberg Similar Being in the World, Examined Life, Hitler: A Film from Germany, The Pervert's Guide to, Flip a Coin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Ister is a 2004 documentary film directed by David Barison and Daniel Ross.
Contents
The film is loosely based on the works of philosopher Martin Heidegger, in particular the 1942 lecture course he delivered, Hölderlins Hymne «Der Ister», concerning a poem, Der Ister, by the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin.
The film had its premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2004.
The ister
Interviewees
The Ister features extensive interviews with the French philosophers Bernard Stiegler, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, as well as with the German film director Hans-Jürgen Syberberg. Other interviews are conducted with a bridge engineer (Nemanja Calic), an amateur botanist (Tobias Maier), and a Romanian archaeologist (Alexandru Suceveanu).
An extended interview with philosopher Werner Hamacher is also included as one of the "extra features" on the DVD.
Locations
The film travels upriver: from the Danube Delta, opening onto the Black Sea in Romania, to the source of the river in the Black Forest of southern Germany, moving along the way through the Histria (Sinoe) archaeological site, through Novi Sad in Serbia, Vukovar in Croatia, Budapest, Dunaföldvár, and Dunaújváros in Hungary, and Vienna and the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria. Also featured are the Walhalla temple near Regensburg, the Befreiungshalle at Kelheim, the tomb of Agnes Bernauer, and the castle at Sigmaringen to which Marshal Pétain fled in 1945.
Notable places from Heidegger's own life which feature in the film include his birthplace in Meßkirch, his hut at Todtnauberg, and the lecture theatre at Freiburg University where he delivered his infamous Rectoratsrede (rectorial address).
Eventually the film arrives at Donaueschingen, and at the Breg and the Brigach, the two tributaries whose confluence marks the point at which the river becomes known as the Danube. The film then travels upstream along the Breg, past Vöhrenbach and Furtwangen, in search of the "true" mountain source of the Danube.
Structure
The Ister is divided into five chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue:
Soundtrack
Three excerpts from classical works feature in the film:
Premiere and awards
The Ister premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on 23 January 2004. It has won two awards:
Additionally, Robert Koehler, film critic for Variety, listed The Ister as the second best film released theatrically in the United States in 2006.
Reviews
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds an 88% approval rating, based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. On Metacritic, the film currently holds a score of 75/100, based on 6 reviews.