Nirgendwo in Afrika

Plot synopsis:
The film begins in Africa, a picture of a boy riding his bicycle through the open plains carrying a note of great significance to the main characters. A once prominent Jewish family has been torn apart by the promise of war in their homeland. WWII is on the verge of breaking out across Europe and the Nazi party's stranglehold is tightening around Germany's neck. Cut to an icy glade in Germany where many children are sledding and playing in the snow. A mother and daughter are sledding together down a snowcapped hill; Regina, afraid of her own shadow and even little dogs, and her mother Jettel, an ambitious socialite. Still in Germany after Walter, a former lawyer (Regina's father/Jettel's husband) has fled to a farm in Kenya where he is working as the foreman but has caught malaria, Regina and Jettel are still living a life of comfort until they receive a letter from Walter. The letter beckons them to come to Kenya where the Nairoibi population of Jewish citizens has agreed to pay their fare into the country. In his letter, Walter begs Jettel to bring an icebox, mosquito netting and to leave the China at home as it will be no use in their new home. Max, Walter's father, wishes the family well but does not wish to accompany them as he feels that everything will be okay within a year or two.Cut back to Kenya where Walter is still sick with malaria, the farm's African cook Ouwour dismisses the normal Quinine treatment prescribed by Süsskind, a German expatriate and family friend, in favor of an African herbal treatment and miraculously Walter is healed. Upon being healed, a bond is formed between Walter and Ouwour when Walter gives his former judicial robes to Ouwour for curing him, stating that "he no longer needs the robe, he was a lawyer in his first life; he needs to think with his braun, not with his brain now.Six months later, Regina and Jettel arrive in Rongai, Kenya with Walter. Walter recognizes immediately that Jettel has no desire to think of Africa as her new home and views it only as a stop in their lives as opposed to a second life. Regina on the other hand immediately forms a bond with Ouwour and begins to adapt to life in Kenya, befriending the local children and exploring her surroundings. Pan shortly into the future and Regina is becoming an independent child, no longer afraid of snow and small dogs. Süsskind comes to deliver supplies and stay with the family; Jettel naively asks how long he has been away from home, to which he replies "this is my home." This is a sense of awakening for Jettel who until now has perceived their rickety farmhouse as only a place to stay. That night Walter and Jettel get into an argument because she had foolishly packed the china and finer goods and left the more important goods, pertinent to their surroundings, at home because she simply refused to let go of their former pampered lifestyle. With no other real companion than Ourwour, Regina begins to learn the lay of the land and the day to day of African life from him whereas Jettel still looks at him as almost a slave. She asks for his help to gather water in one scene, to which he replies that it is womans work yet she persists. He is mercilessly teased by the African women at the waterhole because he allows his ties to the family to outweigh tradition.Six months later, still on the farm, Jettel is still unhappy with their lack of plush surroundings and complains that she needs meat and is tired of eating "slop." This bothers Walter who reluctantly and in anger informs her that they escaped Germany in the nick of time; the Nazi's had raided Jewish residences, businesses and synagogues and had sacked them all. Jettel finally begins to realize that Walter might have been right all along in his assessment that they had to leave Germany and that the Nazi's looked at the Jews as subhuman. On Nov. 10, 1938, Walter writes his father a letter begging him to leave and bring the family to Kenya before it is too late. Walter has realized that his parents are some of the most important people in his life because they were always there for him and now he wants to be there for his family, to provide the way his parents did. Meanwhile, Jettle still has biases against the black population and thinks they are dirty, warning Regina against anything unusual they might try to make her eat or do. Regina, already stubborn and curious, sets off to do just that.Fast forward a little and Jettle starts to realize Ouwour is more than a slave, that he is a smart individual. Six months after that, Regina and her father are loving their "second life" while Jettel is slowly coming to realize what life as an Afrcan is like. Shortly after Walter and Regina and Jettel begin to really adjust, war fully breaks out between the British and Nazi Germany and all Germans living in British holdings, including Jews, are imprisoned in internment camps. Walter goes to one, Jettel and Regina to another, Regina making Ouwour swear he will find them when they get out. For Walter it is a sad and lonely time where he questions whether two people are truly meant to be together for their whole lives. For Jettel it is a retreat back into civilization as the women are put up in a 5 star resort and pampered because the British cannot find other holdings for them. Though back in a pampered environment, Jettel realizes that Regina needs a stable home, even though she is flourishing still and learning English to boot, and that although Jettel prefers a life of luxury, she must be there to support her husband in his wishes. When the Jewish women of the camp begin to organize a drive to allow their husbands to be released, Jettel goes along with them and writes a letter to the Jewish community to help organize their release. Meanwhile, Walter begins to question why Germany would turn its back on them and becomes embittered against the Nazi regime. Once their release is organized, it is reliant upon the men of the family having a job to go back to. Because Walter has been terminated from his job as farm steward he cannot be released. Jettel arranges for a special visit to the Jewish community leader in Nairobi to ask for help yet she cannot arrange it. Upon learning of her wishes, a British soldier who speaks German and has had his eye on Jettel proposes that he can help arrange a job for Walter through some of his contacts but it comes at a cost; Jettel must sleep with him. With her marriage on the rocks and she wishing for her family's protection she willingly agrees. A job on a new farm in, Kenya is arranged and the family moves there. Once again, Regina flourishes in her African surroundings, absorbing culture and life as easily as if she were a native. However, Walter and Jettel have problems as he begins to suspect Jettel may have been unfaithful in order to provide his release. This, accompanied with his embitterment towards Germany lead him down a further path of despair and desolation towards his country. Finally accepting her life as woman of the farm, Jettel begins to enjoy her African surroundings and day to day life that comes with it.On October 2, 1940, the family receives word from his father that it is impossible for them to emigrate now and that he is afraid for his and his family's well-being. This is a major blow to Walter and he begins to resent Hitler and his regime to a point of no return. Shortly after, Owour miraculously finds the family on their new farm and once again restores a sense of order to them. Through his teachings, Regina truly befriends the village children and starts to become immersed in the culture. While Jettel does not mind, she begins to reinstate her wishes that Regina attend school and learn a proper education. Six months later, Regina begins to attend a British ran school where, although she is not exiled, she quickly becomes aware of how Jewish means different to others: no prayer participation, different rules, and somewhat of an unease coming from the other children. Although it is different, Regina thrives in her schoolwork, mainly due to her drive to achieve despite being different.While she is gone, Walter and Jettel struggle to find themselves back in love. Once again the question of love for life is brought up and although neither of them agree that they want to be with each other, they seem to recognize that they need each other even if it is only for one anothers sake. They reach out to each other in a philosophical form more than a loving form but it seems to keep them together. Regina visits sporadically and still fits right into the African culture of the village despite her preening at the British academy. Meanwhile, Jettel is settling more firmly into her role as woman-ward of the farm, taking more part in the day to day running of the farm. It is during one of Regina's visits that the family receives news that their relatives in Germany are being sent to concentration camps in Poland. Walter tells Jettel that Poland means death yet she is unwilling to accept that at face value even though she knows the truth in his words. While Walter becomes more and more embittered towards his former homeland and begins to want to do something about it, Jettel seems to embrace Africa more and more. At one point she cannot leave an old woman to die alone and a villager explains to her that this is the way of the tribe, to be with the ancestors. This seems to comfort Jettel in that she begins to realize that her family too will be with their ancestors.Months later, Süsskind visits and informs Walter that the British army is allowing Jewish Germans to enlist to fight against the Nazi's. While Jettel doesn't like his decision, she becomes resigned to it and assumes Walter's responsibility as head of the farm with Ouwour's help. Once Walter has left however, Susskind begins to visit the farm more often and plays upon Jettels need for companionship. This goes on for a few months until Walter returns on leave after the Allies landed in Normandy in force, symbolizing the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. Regina however, aware of her mother's former tryst with the British soldier, is unforgiving toward her friendliness with Süsskind and confronts her. This has two effects on her mother, the first of which is that she recognizes that Regina is becoming a woman and is struggling with her own rites of passage between becoming a woman of the "civilized" world and that of the African. The second is a new found respect for her husband and what he has done to keep the family safe and together. While being Jewish, she comes to recognize that faith and ethnicity have nothing to do with the perception of the outside world when they refuse to see you as human; much as she formerly thought of the African people when she first came to the continent from Germany. When Walter returns again on leave, he and Jettel share a passionate night in which they conceive a child. It is on this night that he informs her that their family is dead and that he has been chosen to go back to Germany to start a new western government there. In November of 1946, he receives his commission to go back and must prepare his family for their return. Neither Regina nor Jettel take this news well as they have both immersed themselves in the culture as he once had when he first arrived on the continent. The roles of husband and wife had now been reversed as she was happy finally as the proprietor of their farm instead of missing their former plush life in Germany and with him wishing to return to it.In the end it is Regina, reluctant as she is to return to a land of which all she remembers is fear that is the voice of reason between the two parties. Süsskind is at dinner with them when Walter announces his decision that they will return to Germany, Süsskind, the first to embrace Africa as his home cannot understand Walter's welcoming readiness to embrace Germany as his country once again, angering Walter. Jettel wants to stay at the farm and continue their life as framers while Walter wants to return to Germany and build a new, non-corrupt political system. They fight and he begins to leave back to the military base when a huge swarm of locusts come to the farm and threaten the entire crop. As he is leaving he sees the entire village go out to protect the crop and he remembers Regina's last words to him, "mother needs you." He joins the fight against the locusts and when Jettel sees this it seems to rekindle the flame between them, she thinking he'd already made up his mind to leave. While he is still torn between love for country and love for family, Walter tells Jettel that he cannot and will not leave without her. She leaves the decision in his hands resigning herself to the love of her life over the love of her new country. When preparing to leave, Walter finds Ouwour preparing for a journey of his own, a long safari he must go on in order to keep from dying of heartbreak, so deep is his love for this family that has come to cherish his country. Walter finds the robe he gave him upon first meeting and tells him he has forgotten it. Ouwour responds that he has not forgotten it, it was never his to forget as Walter had told him that he didn't need it in his new life. Ouwour calmly informs Walter that he is returning back to his first life and leaving his second, so he will probably need the robe again. The family boards a train to return to Germany, thus coming full circle in their journey for a new life and having found it, being able to return eventually to their old one. However, this time, the return to their old life came with a new member of the family; a son was born on June 6, 1947, thus representing a new chapter to an old way of life. A tale of a complicated and complex journey of people searching for their own purpose and meaning in life and finally, in a roundabout way, finding it.In this movie appears Juliane Köhler who will later play the role of Clara, Fritz Shimon Haber's wife in Haber.

Tags: cult

Review:
It is the best movie I've seen this year, and more than that, it was one of the most amazing film experiences of my life.It is Caroline Link's "Nowhere in Africa", which won the Best Foreign Film Award when, in actuality, it was far better than the Best Picture of the Year.
To call it a great or brilliant or majestic film is an understatement; in fact, I'm at a loss for adjectives to describe it.The film tells the story of a German Jewish woman and her young daughter summoned to Kenya by her husband, circa.
Adolf Hitler is on the brink of declaring his "final solution" of the Jews, and it is with great luck that Jettel and young Regina escape.In Africa, they adapt slowly to their new rural life.
While Regina befriends cook Owuor, Walter and Jettel's relationship threatens to destroy itself because of the hardships the family encounters.I will not spend too much time going into detail, for watching this masterful story unfold is a treasure in itself.
Merab Ninidze has some great scenes with Walter, the father; and Sidede Onyulo is simply magical as Owuor.But the movie belongs to the two girls who play Regina.
In 1937, the non-orthodox Jewish German lawyer Walter Redlich (Merab Ninidze), aware of the growing of the Nazi movement in Germany and how it would jeopardize the Jews in his country, moves alone to Nairobi, Kenya, to administrate a farm.
Traumatic at first, then the family discovers a new way of life to be not without its rewards.Listening from a portable radio in Africa about the details of Jewish holocaust is somewhat confining but a wonderful way of providing emotional tension central to this story.
The film as directed by Caroline Link, based on a novel by Stephanie Zweig, presents us with a family of survivors who will cling to life by going out of their world into the great unknown and a continent away.In Germany the Redlich family is upper middle class.
That does not mean that the movie is without its moments (the brilliant young German daughter speaking with the British school headmaster was one such moment, wonderful), but as a viewer I kept wanting more out of each relationship, both between the humans, and between the humans and the place itself.
Interestingly, much of the film is told from the viewpoint of the daughter and it's nice to see her sense of wonderment over this strange land as well as her fast acceptance of new ways and people.
The wider story here is about problems arising from adaptation to new circumstances.This movie received an Oscar for best foreign film.
The things that appealed to me about the story of the film was the juxtaposition of the lives of the tribal Kenyans and those of the German-Jewish émigrés (particularly how images of the Pentatuch were reflected in the story of the main characters, i.e. the locust, the wandering, the image of Africa as a "wilderness).
"Nowhere in Africa" ("Nirgendwo in Afrika") approaches the Holocaust from the perspective of a couple with a young daughter who had the insight - instinct, perhaps - to flee the boiling cauldron of Nazi Germany before doors closed and deportation and genocide ensued.The cast is largely unknown here and their names can be found on IMDb so I won't list them.
A friend who fled Germany at the accession of Hitler, Susskind, writes from Kenya imploring the couple to emigrate with their precocious daughter, Regina.Without showing violence or the emergence of growing and perfervid anti-Semitism, several brief scenes adumbrate what we know will follow.
But the agony of watching complacent, good and decent people eschew escape because of their faith in the perceived underlying decency of a liberal German populace hurts no matter how often viewed (I wouldn't be writing this review if MY parents hadn't fled at exactly the same time as the Redlichs and their relatives who stayed, virtually all, subsequently were murdered).The Redlichs arrive in a Kenya that has no use for a Jewish lawyer from Germany, in fact little use for Jews at all.
Her growth in the story, largely aided by a black servant, Owuor, is touching.Let's take a short escape to reality: this film shows a Kenya in which proud Africans co-exist with Caucasians.
Nowhere in Africa is a film, directed by Caroline Link, dealing with a Jewish family who must move to Africa in the midst of World War I.
Of course much of value is unavoidably lost on those who speak no German.A perhaps bloody minded question: In that climate no less, does anyone see the father EVER wearing a hat, or is this a slip of authenticity peculiar to the (silly) fashion of the present day?In any case, if you are not put off by the work involved in a foreign language film, see it if you are Jewish or especially if you are not..
One can think of reasons  Jettel on the whole adapts better than Walter and in the end doesn't want to go back to Germany, but Walter still sees himself as German, despite most of his family having been wiped out in the holocaust.
Perhaps it is because we are seeing the child's incomplete view, as worked over by the scriptwriters, who at times seem to be guessing.Being so German-centred, the film casts the Kenyans as local colour, though Owuor the cook is a well-rounded portrayal by Sidede Onyulo.
It is an absorbing drama of a Jewish family's flight from Germany in 1938 to Africa, where life exacts demands in the fields as well as the hearth, at a pace so finely tuned, it all seems terribly nice even at the worst of times.Unlike the passive `Pianist," this film actively ventures into the wilds to struggle with the growing awareness of the Holocaust's terrible toll around the world.
This family, freed from Nazis, still faces disintegration, with a wife, Jettel, unsettled in the new world; a daughter, Regina, increasingly bound to it by the day; and a father, Walter, deciding to stay as a farmer with his family or participate as a lawyer in the reconstruction of Germany."Nowhere" suggests how difficult it is to settle anywhere outside of your homeland and how dangerous people and ideals are when you are vulnerable to change.
Cooks don't dig in the ground.' In Link's favor, however, is a memorable relationship, unique and touching, between Regina and the servant.`Nowhere' won a 2003 Oscar as best foreign language film and five German Lolas, including `best picture.' Such achievement, well deserved for this satisfying story and lush photography, is best reflected in a line spoken by a hotel manager who refuses to treat Jewish prisoners inhumanely: `These are our standards and we are not willing to compromise.' In that respect, `Nowhere' is definitely `somewhere.'.
Nowhere in Africa, this year's winner of the Foreign Film Oscar, tells the story of a Jewish family that emigrates from Breslau, Germany, to Kenya in East Africa, immediately prior to World War II.
This film touched me in several ways: as a reminder of what it is feels like to be an outsider, of the stresses of life in a new environment, of the pain of awaiting news of the fate of loved ones many miles away, and of the endurance of family.
I am a big fan of German cinema, and when I realized that Nowhere in Africa won the Oscar for best foreign language film, I just went and watch it.
Aside from the perceptive plot (a German Jewish family flees the Third Reich and moves to East Africa, where the daughter develops a relationship with a local African), there's also the impressive cinematography.
The husband was a lawyer in Germany and the wife belonged to the social elite - it is now all different and they have to cope with the new situation.It is also a great story about friendship between white and black that doesn't reflect the colour of your skin.
While the director of "Nirgendwo in Afrika" may have felt this need (I really don't know), this film shows new characters, people that had the chance to watch the war from afar and process the changes in their lives (and other's too) in a unique way.I found the little girl's point of view very interesting.
The Kenya native characters are also wonderful, with their unique vision of their world and their wisdom.A delightful movie with lovable characters and a great story to tell..
It tells how a Jewish family flees Germany in 1938 and settles in Kenya for the duration of the war, and how each one in their separate ways, adapts to their new environment.Jettel leaves Germany with her young daughter, Regina, and reunites with her husband, Walter, who went ahead and found employment tending cattle on a ranch.
Jettel is horrified by her new home and wants to return to civilization - she is, frankly, a jewish princess at this stage in her life.But Regina adapts quickly, making friends immediately with their Masai cook, Owuor.
Even people who have no personal interest in Kenya should find this a great film--cinematography, story, music background, all terrific.
While the film is about a Jewish family that moves to Kenya in Africa to escape the holocaust it's themes of identity, acceptance, difference and tolerance are universal and beautifully handled .Forgive me from quoting from one of the advertisements of the movie but sometimes 'home' maybe a place where you least expect it..
You come out of this movie with a longing for far places and real life experiences.This is the story of a Jewish family that escapes to Kenya and of its struggle to find their place in the new country and among themselves.
Nowhere in Africa' is a tale of the plight of a Jewish family in Germany that is forced to come to a nowhere land, Kenya, to escape the Nazi wrath during WWII.
The girl child, thrown into a new environment, takes a no-prejudice approach  she makes new friends (best of whom being their local cook), learns their language and tradition, and comes out as a refreshingly mature person.I think the high point of the movie is its deft handling of the contrast between resilience of human spirit and tenuous nature of human relationships.
After so many WW2/Holocaust movies,especially on the heels of The Pianist, I was glad to learn a story I hadn't heard before, that of a German Jewish family who fled to Kenya in 1938 and lived there 9 years.
The father, Walter Redlich, was a lawyer in Germany, so this is far from anything he is comfortable doing or anywhere he is comfortable being, but he rightly feels that deadly changes are inevitably coming to his home country, and so he has little choice.His wife Jettel is also quite uncomfortable, having insisted on bringing the good china to the middle of nowhere.
Germany's Nowhere in Africa won Best Foreign Language film, but it didn't get nominated for the acting it deserved.
We get movies like 2 Fast 2 Furious at the top of the box office while we have beautiful films that should be seen by all in out-of-the-way theater and the median age for people seeing it is 72.
Also, their daughter Regina (Lea Kurka and Karoline Eckertz, played by different kids in different ages) deals with her new lifestyle in Africa, and with their amicable cook Owuor (Sidede Onyulo), with whom she gets along great.
A German Jewish family escapes Hitler's genocide by immigrating to Kenya shortly before World War II in writer and director Caroline Link's Nowhere in Africa, but life is not easy in the rugged country.
Kohler's character in particular goes from one extreme to the other; when Jettel first arrives in Africa, she chastises their cook, Owuor (Sidede Onyulo), and tells him to learn German, but by the end she speaks Swahili fluently and makes the sweeping statement that she has learned the value of differences.This moralistic statement characterizes the script's dialogue that begins to suffer near the end of the film.
Another German expatriate, Süßkind (Matthias Habich), who frequents the Redlich household rebukes Walter for pressuring Jettel to return to their native land when he says, `We're Jews even if it doesn't mean much to you'--a statement sorely misplaced shortly after Jettel tells Regina that Judaism has never been of much importance to their immediate family.
The high-minded nature of these statements and many others in addition to the anti-Semitic words of the headmaster at Regina's boarding school corrupt the script's initial eloquent but believable language that communicates through subtle rather than blatant discourse.Despite the film's faults, Nowhere in Africa is worth the price of a movie ticket.
They reached places like China, South America and for the Redlich family in the film, Africa, more precisely Kenya, then a British colony.
The film is about the Holocaust as a remote tragedy that impacts the lives of the refugees, but also about the confrontation of the newcomers with the different landscape, culture and people of Africa, about the prejudice that was at the root of their suffering and the one that they encounter from the local British establishment, but also about the prejudice they themselves feel towards the Africans and which they have to overcome.
It's also a film about the coming to age of a young girl who is just a kid when she arrives in Africa, who is the first to adapt and love the local landscape and people with the openness and innocence of children, and who grows to be a smart teenager inheriting the identity dilemmas of her parents.What I liked.
Released in 2001 and directed by Caroline Link from the autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig, "Nowhere in Africa" chronicles life in Kenya during World War II centering around a Jewish couple (Juliane Köhler and Merab Ninidze) and their daughter (Lea Kurka and, later, Karoline Eckertz).
Matthias Habich plays a fellow Jew living in Kenya who assists them while Sidede Onyulo plays their Kenyan cook, who becomes a sort-of foster father to the girl.This is a German film with only a handful of lines in English, which means you'll have to use the subtitles if English is your primary language.
The difference is that the more popular earlier film focuses on colonial Kenya during WWI while this one takes place during WWII.The couple has an interesting story arc and I liked the emphasis on Native Kenyan culture.
A Jewish family flees Nazi Germany for Kenya but must adapt to the foreign land as well as the changing dynamics of their relationships.
This is probably the best film I've seen for a long time, it is also splendid for its interpretation of Africans as people, real people with emotions, traditions and hopes unlike so many other movies which regard them as part of the scenery.
The filmmaker seems to be trying to sugarcoat the real horror, much of it emanating from the true character of the Germans.Sorry, but in some ways the director treats the Africans of Kenya like the Nazis treated the Jews, as low-level outsiders.
I found it very absorbing - the dynamic between the two actresses who play Regina and the stately, beautiful African who plays Uwour is truly touching at times - and lamented only the fact that it meandered a bit in its attempts to show the development of the main characters, particularly Jettel, the pampered, middle-class German Jewish hausfrau who becomes, by the film's end, a fervent lover of the Africa around her.
Finally, as the war comes to a close, Walter and Jettel virtually trade places in their attitudes: he, once so eager to remain in Kenya, feeling the need to return to a post-Hitler Germany to help rebuild his native country and she, once so eager to leave it, wanting to remain in a land she has learned to love, a country she has come, in many ways, to think of as her own.In fact, it is the transition Jettel undergoes throughout the course of the story that makes `Nowhere in Africa' such a fascinating film.
But both the land and the people of Kenya soon transform her into a woman who is able to see and understand the truly important things in life  tolerance, acceptance, love, family.
The story opens in 1938, as Jews Jettel and her daughter Regina are preparing to escape Germany and join her husband who has found work in Kenya.
It's about historical events, it's slow, it focuses on emotional drama, and it even has subtitles.But if you didn't see this Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, then let me tell you, you've missed out.Nowhere in Africa tells the story of a German-Jewish family who flees Hitler's Germany in the 1930s to live in Kenya, Africa - a place about as different from home as they can possibly imagine.
Gradually, however, Jettel adapts to their new life on the farm, even when Walter longs to go back to Germany.Regina is the couple's daughter.
You somehow know that the Redlich family will remain in Africa during the war, surving the best they can while their families will perish in Germany, and that after the war, they will return back to their homeland.It is in the richness of the details, the characters, the African people, landscape, that gives this movie its value.
I have seen some wonderful foreign films, but I watched the film Nirgendwo in Afrika recently, and it is truly one of the very best films I have seen in a long time.Nowhere in Africa (the English title) is a German film about a Jewish family who flee from the Nazi regime at the very last moment before it is too late to a remote farm in Kenya.
The young daughter grows up loving the country and forgetting what Germany was like; she embraces the African people most out of the three, especially the family cook.