Out of Africa

**Out of Africa** is a 1985 film starring Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Klaus Maria Brandauer, directed by Sydney Pollack, written by Kurt Luedtke and produced by Pollack.

## Plot

Karen Blixen recalls her life in Africa where in 1913 she, as an unmarried wealthy Danish woman, is spurned by her Swedish nobleman lover and accepts a marriage proposal from his brother Baron Bror Blixen, who moves to the vicinity of Nairobi, British East Africa.

Using her funds, he is to set up a cattle ranch, with her joining him a few months later, at which time they will complete this marriage of convenience. En route to Nairobi, her train is hailed by a big-game hunter by the name of Denys Finch Hatton who knows her fiance and entrusts his haul of ivory to her.

She is greeted at the train station by Farah, the Somali headman hired by Bror, who is nowhere to be found. She is taken to the recently-founded Muthaiga Club. She enters the men-only bar to ask for her husband and, because of her gender, is asked to leave. Karen and Bror marry before the day is out, with her becoming Baroness Blixen.

She then learns that Bror has changed their agreed-upon plan, and has spent her money on establishing a coffee farm. She quickly learns that the farm is at too high an elevation to offer much of a chance of success. She need's Bror's help in building and managing this farm, but his interest is more in guiding game hunting safaris than in farming and he refuses.

Karen comes to love Africa and the African people, and is taken in by the breathtaking view of the nearby Ngong Hills and the Great Rift Valley beyond. Meanwhile, she looks after the Kikuyu people who are squatting on her land. Among other things, she establishes a school, looks after their medical needs, and arbitrates their disputes. She also tries to establish a formal European homelife on par with the other upper class colonists in the area. Meanwhile, she becomes friends with a young woman, Felicity, whose character is based on that of a young Beryl Markham. Eventually, Karen develops feelings for Bror, who doesn't return them and who engages in numerous affairs.

As the First World War reaches East Africa, the colonists form a militia led by the colonial patriarch Lord Delamere, which includes Denys and Bror among their number. A military expedition sets out in search of the forces from the neighboring German colony of German East Africa. Responding to the militia's need for supplies, Karen leads a difficult expedition to find them and returns safely.

Shortly after the end of the war, Denys acquires a Gypsy Moth biplane and often takes Karen flying. In the evenings during his visits she makes up exotic and imaginative stories to entertain him.

Karen discovers that Bror has given her syphilis. As she is unable to receive proper treatment in Nairobi, she returns to Denmark for treatment and recuperation and Bror agrees to manage the farm while she is away. When she returns, now unable to bear children, Bror resumes his safari work and they begin to live separately.

The relationship between Karen and Denys develops, and he comes to live with her. Karen and Bror get a divorce on the grounds of Bror's infidelity. When Karen learns that Denys has takes one of her female acquaintences on a private safari, Karen comes to realize that Denys does not share her desire for a monogamous, domestic relationship. He assures her that when he is with her he wants to be with her, and states that a marriage is immaterial to their relationship. Eventually, this drives them apart and, refusing to be tied down, he moves out.

The farm eventually yields a good harvest, but a fire destroys much of the farm and factory, forcing her to sell out. She prepares for her departure from Kenya to Denmark by appealing to the incoming governor to provide land for her Kĩkũyũ workers to allow them to stay together, and by selling most of her remaining possessions at a rummage sale. Farah expresses his desire to accompany her, but she declines, telling him that he would not be happy there.

Denys visits the now-empty house and Karen comments that the house should have been so all along and, as with her other efforts, the returning of things to their natural state is as it should be. Denys says that he was just getting used to her things.

As he is about to depart for a safari scouting trip in his airplane, they agree that the following Friday he will return and fly her to Mombasa; with Karen then continuing on to Denmark. Friday comes and Denys does not appear. Bror then arrives to tell her that Denys' biplane has crashed and burned in Tsavo.

During Denys' funeral Karen recites a poem by A. E. Housman about a lauded athlete dying young who, as with Denys, is not fated to decline into old age. Later, as she is about to depart, she goes to the Muthaiga Club to complete arrangements for forwarding any mail. The members, who have come to admire her, invite her into the men-only bar for a toast. At the train station, she says goodbye to Farah, then turns back to ask him to say her name so she can hear his voice one last time.

Karen would later become a published author under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Among her work is the memoir about her experiences in Africa, Out of Africa, the first line from which is used to introduce this film. She was never to return to Africa.