Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika) - 3 Stars (Good)



Only Walter could see it coming. His extended family in Germany could not see that Adolph Hitler would turn on his own German citizens who were Jewish. Walter was a professional, a judge and a German citizen, not a Jew who happened to be a German citizen. He would leave Germany and take his family to Africa in 1938. Walter was right.

During World War II from 1941 to 1945, Hitler and his Nazi regime would murder more than 6 million Jews in a program of planned extermination. Walter and his family would escape death, but many members of his extended family would not, they would be divided and scattered in concentration camps to suffer atrocities and die. "Nowhere in Africa" is Walter's story, based on the true story of a Jewish family that fled to a remote farm in Kenya.

Walter Redlich (played by Merab Ninidze) takes his wife Jettel (Julianne Kohler) and daughter Regina (Lea Kurka plays the younger part and Karoline Ecketz the older part) to Kenya over the objections of his immediate and extended family.

Upon their arrival, they realize that their destination and lodging are remote, desolate and humble. Walter is to function as a caretaker, a reduction in station that turns his wife Jettel into a miserable, whiny, untouchable presence. When she met Walter he was a judge in their homeland in once-comfortable surroundings. Now she is reduced to nothing, not to mention the fact that nearly all of her precious belongings were left behind. Her sense of values is all but absent. Only their 5-year-old daughter Regina embraces her new surroundings, learning the local language and customs and finding a new friend in Owuor (Sidede Onyulo), the farm's cook.

The British Army will arrive at some point and he and his family will be whisked off to a hotel back in Kenyan civilization. Walter will eventually join the British Army in its fight against Germany, and his wife will have an affair with an officer that her daughter will notice.

As time has a way of healing some of us, Jettel grows more self-assured in her new life as Walter becomes more haunted by the life he left behind. When the war ends, Walter receives an offer to return to his old position and decides to do so. Jettel at this point is unmovable, and Regina will stay with her mother. Interestingly enough, Walter never is given credit for saving his family from the Holocaust.

Walter does leave, but on his way out he realizes the farm, which is now producing crops in abundance, is about to attacked by migratory locusts. He somewhat reluctantly returns to help his wife, daughter, and the farm hands to fight off the locusts. We are left with the assumption that because Walter returns, he will stay with his family and be reconciled.

Nowhere in Africa is a German film written and directed by Caroline Link. Released in 2001, Nowhere in Africa would win an Oscar as the Best Foreign Language Film, be nominated by the Golden Globes for the same award, pick up 17 more awards and 6 more nominations, many of them overseas.

Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika in German) is based on the best-selling autobiographical novel by Stephanie Zweig.

This film is worth seeing because—despite the obstacles—it tests the strength of a marriage and a family to stay together.