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Nowhere in Africa (2003)
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Reviews Counted:97
Fresh:83
Rotten:14
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: A visually lovely epic with compelling, three-dimensional characters.
Theatrical Release:Mar 7, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $5,888,057
Synopsis:
A love story spanning two continents, NOWHERE IN AFRICA is the extraordinary true tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their...
A love story spanning two continents, NOWHERE IN AFRICA is the extraordinary true tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich, his wife Jettel (Juliane Köhler, of AIMÉE AND JAGUAR) and their five-year-old daughter Regina each deal with the harsh realities of their new life in different ways. Attorney Walter is resigned to working the farm as a caretaker; pampered Jettel resists adjustment at every turn; while the shy yet curious Regina immediately embraces the country-learning the local language and customs, and finding a friend in Owuor, the farm's cook.
As the war rages on the other side of the world, the trio's relationships to their strange environment become increasingly complicated as Jettel grows more self-assured and Walter more haunted by the life they left behind. As they eventually learn to cherish their life in Africa, they also endeavor to find a way back to each other.
Winner of five 2002 Golden Lola (German Film) Awards, including best film, director and cinematography, NOWHERE IN AFRICA was written and directed by Caroline Link (whose BEYOND SILENCE was nominated for a 1996 Best Foreign Film Oscar), and based on the best-selling autobiographical novel by Stephanie Zweig. -- © Zeitgeist Films
Starring: Juliane Kohler, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo
Starring: Juliane Kohler, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo, Karoline Eckertz, Lea Kurka
Director: Caroline Link
Director: Caroline Link
Screenwriter: Caroline Link
Producer: Peter Hermann
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
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Reviews for Nowhere in Africa
Doesn't avoid being a bit too solemn and self-important, but its intelligent craftsmanship and good intentions go far to make up for it.
Nowhere in Africa is a movie of many moods and nuances. In addition to being a Holocaust saga, it's a girl's story, a woman's story and the story of a marriage.
It's beautifully shot and too long, and contains pained references to the Holocaust; it's a movie tailor-made for awards rather than for personal reasons.
Running an epic length, it tells a solid but not particularly exceptional story.
Some may carp about the leisurely pacing and length (138 minutes), others about the occasionally didactic tone, but the film's beauty and the power of the story make up for it.
Superbly acted and brilliantly lensed, Nowhere In Africa is that hard-to-achieve movie where the small picture counts for more than the bigger one.
With a rich sense of detail and ferocious determination not to simplify the complex, the film explores themes of maintaining one’s cultural identity in a foreign land and the amazing adaptability of kids.
A well-acted, exquisitely photographed, plot-jammed movie that sinks into melodrama and reveals too little about the African culture and landscape in which it's set.
This very fine movie is neither tourism nor special pleading, and its emotions are impeccably developed.
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