various french philosopher provide background commentary regard the german philosopher heidegger and holderlein poem the ister and which have something to do with the ancient greek name for a portion of the danube river . while the philosopher be comment and we see image of the various portion of the river ( in romania and ex yugoslavia and austria and etc ) and and image of the country that it pass through . if my description sound vague and it because and a an average lay person and i find this movie very hard to understand and i could not follow 3 hour of philosophical expounding and in french no less . at least half the audience walk out of the film and probably feel the same a me . i stick it out and and enjoy some of the imagery and and even some of the philosophy and but and the dialogue become so esoteric at point and that i find myself ask be this for real .