| The Ister | |
| Director: | David Barison Daniel Ross |
| Starring: | Bernard Stiegler Jean-Luc Nancy Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe Hans-Jürgen Syberberg |
| Runtime: | 189 minutes |
| Country: | Australia |
The Ister is a 2004 documentary film directed by David Barison and Daniel Ross.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 was inspired by a 1942 lecture course delivered by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, published in 1984 as Hölderlins Hymne "Der Ister". Heidegger's lecture course concerns a poem by the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin about the Danube River.
The film The Ister travels upstream along the Danube toward its source, as several interviewees discuss Heidegger, Hölderlin, and philosophy. The film is also concerned with a number of other themes, including: time, poetry, technology, home, war, politics, myth, National Socialism, the Holocaust, the ancient Greek polis, Sophocles, Antigone, Agnes Bernauer, Edmund Husserl, the 1991 battle of Vukovar, and the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
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.
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).[1]
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.
The Ister is divided into five chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue:
Three excerpts from classical works feature in the film:
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.[2]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 88% approval rating, based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10.[3] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 75 out of 100, based on 6 reviews.[4]