Product: Nowhere in Africa (2003)
Rating: 5.0
Unusual movie touching on the survival during Holocaust
Caroline Link's movie "Nowhere in Africa" is based on the story of Stephanie Zweig, who lived in Colonial Kenya to escape the Nazis. The author should not be confused with Stephan Zweig, the great Austrian Jewish author. The movie is unusual in its tone and direction. It shows the life of Walter and Jettel and their daughter, Regina who move to rural Kenya during the Holocaust. Owour, their servant plays a beautiful part in bringing the movie together. Jettel who hates the place, acts like a princess. Her frivolity precipitates the first of many domestic clashes that seriously strain the Redlichs' marriage. Jettel initially hates her new life and treats the natives like servants. She embarrasses Owuor by asking him to carry water, a task only the women in his tribe perform. She even looks down on her husband, now that he's a humble farmer no longer practicing law. Eventually, he puts her in her place by telling her that she is treating Owour the way the Nazis are treating the Jews, a slight exaggaration, but some truth to it. While Jettel starts as a vain, snobbish person, she eventually adapts to the situation as a self-reliant person.Regina eagerly embraces her new circumstances and befriends the native children her own age and learns their language, and the scenes of the girl frolicking with her African peers evoke an idyllic cultural merger. She is a pleasure to watch and her interaction with Owour is special. By the time the war breaks out, the situation gets dire back home as Jettel's family is interned. Even in Africa, the anti-semitism is obvious. In Regina's school, people treat the Jewish students differently from the other students. She is also talked to unkindly by the school principal.Eventually after the war Walter (who is Bavarian), wishes to go back to Germany, but Jettel gets used to the place does not wish it. Niki Reiser's African-flavored symphonic music (similar in style to Hans Zimmer's film scores) underlines the visual sweep. The movie has beautiful photography that gives it both the landscape and the colonial life the elegance of a coffee-table picture book. While the movie may have some inconsistencies such as making the colonial life appear OK, and basking in the illusion that the past was so much prettier than the present, it still is a wonderfully made one and a pleasure to watch.