Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Caroline Link

Writers:

Caroline Link (writer)
Stefanie Zweig (novel)

Release Date:

27 December 2001 (Germany)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

Sometimes home is where you least expect it

Plot:

A German Jewish refugee family moves to and adjusts to a farm life in 1930's Kenya.

Plot Keywords:

Kenya | Farm | Corn | Tree Climbing | Shower

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 17 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Juliane Köhler	...	Jettel Redlich
Merab Ninidze	...	Walter Redlich
Sidede Onyulo	...	Owuor
Matthias Habich	...	Walter Süßkind
Lea Kurka	...	Regina Redlich (younger)
Karoline Eckertz	...	Regina Redlich - Older
Gerd Heinz	...	Max
Hildegard Schmahl	...	Ina
Maritta Horwarth	...	Liesel
Regine Zimmermann	...	Käthe
Gabrielle Odinis	...	Dienstmädchen Klara
Bettina Redlich	...	Mrs. Sadler
Julia Leidl	...	Inge
Mechthild Grossmann	...	Elsa Konrad
Joel Wajsberg	...	Hubert

Also Known As:

Nowhere in Africa (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexual content.

Runtime:

141 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

English | Swahili | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | Malaysia:18SX (uncut version) | Malaysia:U (cut) | South Korea:15 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Brazil:12 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-7 | Germany:6 (bw) | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:AL | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Africa

Company:

BKM

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: After giving the radio to Walter, Susskind wishes him good luck with the well; as he drives away, the reflection of the camera truck can be seen on the door of his truck, and the tire tracks from the camera truck are visible as the camera backs up.

Quotes:

Jettel Redlich: Do you think people should stay together for their whole life?
Walter Redlich: I guess not. It's probably just some nonsense which our ancestors persuaded us to adopt.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) (TV)

Chronicle of a survival

This film was a surprise. It presents us a family that escape the horrors they foresaw coming in Germany to an uncertain future in Africa. 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. The household is filled with people going about their lives in an elegant way. That is until Walter and Jettel Redlich decide to leave it all behind to start a new life in Africa, thus avoiding a certain death.

Walter and Jettel stick out like sore thumbs in the rural part of Kenya where they go. Walter has never done any kind of manual labor, or Jettel, for that matter. Little Regina, who is a sweet and curious girl, feels right at home from the beginning. Children will adapt more easily than grown ups.

The Redlichs are lucky when Owuor arrives. They employ him right away. He is kindness personified; he turns out to be indispensable for all of them. When Walter loses the first post, the family has to relocate to another farm helped by the benevolent Susskind; his attraction to Jettel is evident, but he is too decent to take advantage of the situation.

The many difficulties are overcome because Jettel turns out to be the strongest person in this family. She is played by Juliane Kohler with gusto. She makes us feel she is this woman in the midst of a harsh place fighting all kinds of obstacles in order to survive in the new country.

The setting feels like the Africa of the 30s and 40s when it was a white man's paradise. This is the Africa where genocides will occur later on, as different nations will try to gain independence and some governments will practice what made this family flee Nazi Germany in the first place.