Product: Nowhere in Africa (2003)
Rating: 4.0
A Film About The Value Of Differences - Excellent!
"Nowhere In Africa" follows a young assimilated German-Jewish family from the time they flee Nazi Germany in 1938 and emigrate to Africa until the end of WWII. This moving film is adapted from Stefanie Zweig's autobiographical novel and deals more with the struggle to begin a new life in a very foreign land than with the war going on back in Europe.Walter Redlich, (Merab Ninidze), a lawyer living in Breslau, Germany, sensed the dark future for Jews in the Third Reich and left to find work in Kenya before 1938. He sent for his wife Jettel, (Juliane Köhler) and young daughter Regina, (beautifully played by both Lea Kurka, as a preschooler and Karoline Eckertz, as an adolescent), as soon as he was settled as a farm manager in Rongai, Africa. Jettel was ambivalent about leaving her mother, in-laws, prosperous life and the culture and language she loved. She had been brought up to think of herself as German first, and then as Jewish. Like many others, she did not really believe that Hitler would remain in power for long. The Redlichs seemed to have had a somewhat superficial relationship; one that had never been stressed with problems or inconveniences. Her beloved father-in-law told Jettel, before she departed, that in a marriage, "usually one person loves more than the other." He asked her to keep the family together.Jettel and Regina arrive to find a stark, dry land. Walter had been sick with malaria. His African cook, Owour, (Sidede Onyulo), cared for him and got him back on his feet in time for his family's arrival. He was not prepared for his wife's coldness or her aversion to the new country. Instead of bringing a refrigerator with her, as her husband had written and asked, Jettel used the money to buy an expensive gown. Also packed, in the limited amount of luggage she was allowed to remove from Germany, were fine china dishes and knickknacks. Young Regina, however, is thrilled to see her father. She immediately makes friends with Owour and takes to her new home as if she had been born there. Regina had always been a meek and frightened child, as a result of frequent harassment in Germany. Her fears leave her quickly in this sun-filled country where she begins to run wild with the native children and learn a new culture and language. The conflict between her parents continues to grow. Jettel does not see the big picture. Rather than be thankful that her family was one of the very few able to escape Germany, she is resentful of their shabby life and seems to loose respect for Walter now that he is no longer a lawyer. She makes it very clear that she is unhappy.Photographer Gernot Roll captures the beauty of the land, with its sweeping savannas, the sacred Mt. Kenya overlooking the small homestead, shots of African ceremonies and dances, children playing, and wonderful close-ups of a hoard of locustsattacking crops of corn.The terrible stress of losing one's culture, of always being different, is what is emphasized most by director Caroline Link. As Jettel says to her daughter, "Germany is a place where differences are bad, in Africa differences are good. I learned here how valuable differences are."The movie is somewhat flawed. I think that Regina would have made a much better main character than her mother. It is difficult to like Jettel, as the spoiled, selfish daughter/wife/mother who refuses to adapt. And there is little chemistry between husband and wife, although they make an extraordinarily attractive couple. Overall, however, "Nowhere In Africa" definitely deserves 4 stars. It won various awards in Germany and was that country's Oscar nomination in 2002.JANA