In an isolated, border zone town, a joumalist investigates the meaning of the town′s nickname: the walting room. The majority of the residents are refugees - in the town illegally - having crossed the border and who are now just passing the time until they leave to start new lives elsewhere. The town is a forgotten one, at world′s end, divided by a river which doubles as a political boundary. And in this town, the joumalist suspecis that he has found a famous politician living as a reclusive farmer. He vanished years before, never answering any of the questions he raised. In the era of free trade and the European Union, Angelopoulos has created another poetical, political allegory - this time around the very idea of the border, the meaning of "refugee", and how the world looks in the post-Iron Curtain years. His belief is that the European Union is doing just the opposite, and that Europe is fragmenting and dividing so frequently and so often that true union is impossible. The Suspended Step of the Stork is about centennial despair.