Product: Nowhere in Africa (2003)
Rating: 4.0
"Nowhere in Africa" -- A Place to Be
The reneissance of German movies in the first decade of 2000's reached one of its peaks with this epic film in "Out of Africa" vein, a foreign language film Academy Award winner of 2002. Fairly conventional but delightful in many ways, the story of a Jewish family who had fled from Nazi Germany to Kenya is predominantly a family drama. In fact, it's one of the most memorable "marriage films" of recent years. Directed and written by Caroline Link, the female hand clearly shows mainly in the character of the family's father Walter (Georgia-born Merab Ninidze), who is portrayed as a very gentle, soft and considerate, while his wife Jettel (Julianne Koehler), who has problems with adapting to a whole new way of life, often toys with viewers' sympathy. The film contains numerous (clever and realistic) references about central European (not so Jewish, for that matter), African and English life and opinions, sports great music and cinematography and, simply put, is anything you may expect from an Oscar-winning film, which is an asset in itself.