Product: Nowhere in Africa (2003)
Rating: 3.0
Could have been wonderful.......
Nowhere in Africa tells a unique story about the Jewish Holocaust. What makes if different from other films of that genre is that the family flees to Africa and discovers new cultures and traditions, which would make for fascinating storytelling. Unfortunately, not much goes on in this film, and it quickly becomes repetitive, tedious, and boring.Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich, his wife Jettel (Juliane Kohler) and their five-year-old daughter Regina each deal with the harsh realities of their new life in different ways. Attorney Walter is resigned to working the farm as a caretaker; pampered Jettel resists adjustment at every turn; while the shy yet curious Regina immediately embraces the country-learning the local language and customs, and finding a friend in Owuor, the farm's cook. As the war rages on the other side of the world, the trio's relationships to their strange environment become increasingly complicated as Jettel grows more self-assured and Walter more haunted by the life they left behind. As they eventually learn to cherish their life in Africa, they also endeavor to find a way back to each other.That the movie focuses mainly on the characters rather than the war gives this story its strength. Kurka and Eckertz both give skillful performances as Regina in her respective stages of adolescence. The character comes off as being not only blissfully innocent but fiercely intelligent. When the Pokot children teach her how to warm her feet in cow dung, or when she gathers everyone around for a story about angels, you can't help but wonder whether the tribe still talks about Stefanie Zweig so many years later. Likewise, when she debates with her tribal boyfriend about whether she should remove her blouse in order to more freely climb a tree (the way any Pokot teenager might do), we're presented with a clever example of culture clash.Unfortunately, a handful of problems with the directing and editing keep Nowhere in Africa from reaching its full potential. By far, the most serious issue is the way that Link positions Jettel as the main character, rather than Regina. The former is almost wholly unlovable and therefore audience members are likely to have little sympathy for her woes. From the start, she jeopardizes her family's welfare by pointedly deciding not to bring a refrigerator to Kenya, as her husband has requested. We soon learn that she has instead packed their shipping crates with fine china and spent the money on a fancy dress that she's never worn. Perhaps this would be forgivable if there were additional scenes to help us understand her torment; but as it is, Jettel seems more spoiled than anything else.The second major problem-which also centers on Jettel-is that Link wants badly to create a love story out of Jettel and Walter's unstable relationship. While we're supposed to believe that the harshness of life in the Kenyan desert pulls the two apart (and then brings them back together again), it's difficult to see how they were ever really in love to begin with. In one of the first scenes, when Jettel's father-in-law says to her, "One of you always loves the most," it's clear that the relationship is already out of balance. And sure enough, we see Jettel flirt with a neighborly expatriate and then shamelessly start up an affair with a handsome-but-manipulative British officer. Because this infidelity comes so easily to Jettel, one presumes that the cracks in her marriage are her own fault-not the desert's.With the wonderful Talk to Her, it's a shame this won Best Foreign Film. While it had so much going for it, I quickly lost interest, and became bored. And at almost 2 and a half hours, it was WAY too long. A good film is supposed to linger in your mind for days. This one was forgotten in minutes....