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NOWHERE IN AFRICA Send This Review to a Friend
Here's a film of substance and artistry that is related to the Holocaust yet refreshingly different. To escape persecution as the Nazi vice tightens against the Jews in Germany, a Jewish couple and their daughter leave to spend the war years on a farm in Kenya, where new experiences will change their lives. "Nowhere in Africa", a German import, is written and directed by Caroline Link, who based it upon a true story set forth in a novel by Stefanie Zweig. The result is a sweeping, absorbing personal epic that is handsomely filmed and emotionally involving on various levels.
Walter Redlich, played by Merab Ninidze, is a lawyer, but he seizes the opportunity to start a new life with a job on the farm. His wife Jettel (Juliane Köhler) grows very resentful. It's a hard life and the marriage comes under stress. Their child Regina (Lea Kurka as young Regina and Karoline Eckertz as the teenage Regina) takes more easily to her new surroundings and a warm relationship develops between Regina and Owour (Sidede Onyulo), the farm's cook.
Ironically, when Britain enters war against Germany, the British in Kenya see the Redlichs as German nationals even though they have fled, and they are ordered interned. But strings are pulled to help. What gives "Nowhere in Africa" such a glow is the opening up of the family to their new surroundings and the relationships that develop.
The plot gets somewhat overburdened, including with a sequence involving an invasion by locusts. The event has a purpose, but the film might have benefited from some tightening. However, "Nowhere in Africa" is unique in its examination of effects of the war and anti-Semitism from an unusual angle. In the process, along with the family under the microscope, we get a picture of life in a remote part of Kenya in this strong, likable and well-cast film that is a nominee for a best foreign film Oscar. A Zeitgeist Films release.
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