Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika) (2001)
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 98
Fresh: 83 | Rotten: 15
A visually lovely epic with compelling, three-dimensional characters.
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 5
A visually lovely epic with compelling, three-dimensional characters.
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Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 6,655
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Movie Info
A family on the run for their lives finds themselves in a beautiful but utterly unfamiliar world in this drama based on the autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig. Walter Redlich (Merab Ninidze) is a successful Jewish lawyer living in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich. Aware of the increasing dangers of remaining in Germany, Walter seeks exile on a farm in Kenya, while his socially prominent wife, Jettel (Juliane Koehler), and his young daughter, Regina (Lea Kurka), stay behind, as
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Cast
-
Juliane Köhler
Jettel Redlich -
Merab Ninidze
Walter Redlich -
Matthias Habich
Suesskind -
Sidede Onyulo
Owuor -
Lea Kurka
Regina Redlich (younger... -
Karoline Eckertz
Regina Redlich (older) -
Gerd Heinz
Max -
-
Maritta Horwarth
Liesel -
Regine Zimmermann
Kaethe -
Gabrielle Odinis
Klara -
Bettina Redlich
Mrs. Sadler -
Julia Leidl
Inge -
Mechthild Großmann
Elsa Konrad -
Peter Lenaeku
Jogona as a Boy -
Silas Kerati
Jogona as an Adult -
-
Andy Rashleigh
Captain Caruther -
Anthony Bate
Mr. Brindley -
David Michaels
Robert Green -
Andrew Sachs
Mr. Rubens -
Diane Keen
Mrs. Rubens -
Herbert Knaup
Walter Redlich -
Dokdin Kanyaman
Kimani -
Kenny Brown
Bure -
Marian Lösch
Johannes -
Steve Weston
Mr. Morrison -
Joel Wajsberg
Hubert -
Miriam Wajsberg
Ruth -
Bela Klenze
Boy With Sledge -
Levit Pereira
Daji Jiwan -
Steven Price
British Officer in Norf... -
M.M. Shah
Patel
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All Critics (111) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (84) | Rotten (15) | DVD (13)
Everything in the film rings true, is deeply moving, richly photographed, and wonderfully acted.
Top CriticThe acting is excellent.
The film has the glorious sweep of an epic.
Link creates a complex and fascinating portrait of a marriage under the enormous stress of geographical dislocation and historical trauma.
There's a wealth of material here -- all sorts of fascinating details -- that more than fill up the film's generous two-hours-plus running time.
One very fine film.
plods through new terrain in Holocaust related subject matter with a shotgun mentality
Very moving, well-written, and better-acted, but bitterly realistic.
Nowhere in Africa is long enough that each character is meticulously studied and developed while Link takes the time also to provide wonderfully patient, artistic moments
Una buena historia para decir un par de cosas sobre el desarraigo, los lazos familiares, y la chance de empezar una nueva vida siempre que sea necesario.
A pretty but unsatisfying trifle, its graceful camerawork and fine acting unable to make an oddly flat story shine.
The acting is wonderful throughout, and director Carole Link has crafted a tale with the dramatic scope of a great epic. The English Patient comes to mind.
Caroline Link's Oscar winning film has sweeping theme music, stunning cinematography and a well-told story that offers a unique slice of history.
An epic story that deeply explores the lives of Jewish expatriots during World War II.
Writer-director Caroline Link adapted Stefanie Zweig's expatriate memoir gracefully, languidly and with full understanding of its heroine.
Audience Reviews for Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika)
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Foreign Titles
- Nirgendwo in Afrika (DE)
- Nowhere in Africa (UK)
The performances by all the main actors are absolutely excellent, especially by Merab Ninidze and Sidede Onyulo. The characters ring true, and the situations are all believable. Even the bratty behavior by Jettel, who misses the privileges of her life in Germany, seems logical when one remembers that she doesn't have the benefit of concentration camp photographs that have been handed down to us by history.
Ironically and interestingly, what is frustrating about Nowhere in Africa is also one of its greatest strengths: once again, here is a film about Africa with white protagonists, so the racism inherent in never telling African stories from an African perspective continues. Yet the point behind Nowhere in Africa is that even victims of racism, in this case the Jewish family, can exhibit racist tendencies. It's a remarkable concept because unlike other films about Nazism it doesn't reduce the world into clearly defined categories of good and evil.
The ending is unsatisfying, but the film opened a Pandora's Box with the complexity of its theme, and any ending that I can think of would ultimately be as reductive as the one the filmmakers chose.
Overall, Nowhere in Africa is a very good, unique film if only for the cinematography, but the complexity of its theme and the sharpness of its characters make it quite extraordinary.