By Cynthia
Citron
Viewing the new film, Nowhere in Africa was, for me,
a very poignant and emotional experience. In another life I spent seven
years in Africa, and I always thought that Kenya was one of the most beautiful
countries on earth. It shimmers in a golden light that falls in chunks
so palpable you can almost reach out and catch them. Director Caroline
Link captures that beauty so exquisitely that at times I found it physically
painful to watch.
Nowhere in Africa deals with the timely escape of a wealthy, highly
sophisticated Jewish family, the Redlichs, from Nazi Germany to, literally,
the middle of nowhere. The husband, Walter, a handsome and humorlessly
intense lawyer (Merab Ninidze), is first seen recovering from a bout of
malaria. He has gone ahead to find work as a tenant farmer in Kenya and
he tackles the project with a grim, Germanic determination.
His wife Jettel (Juliane Kohler) a beautiful, pampered naif, joins him for
what she thinks will be a brief respite, accompanied by a full set of
Rosenthal china and an expensive new evening gown. And by an adorable,
adaptable little girl, played at different ages by Karoline Eckertz and Lea
Kurka, who look so much alike that the transition between them is virtually
seamless. It is the girl's story, as told in the autobiographical novel
by Stefanie Zweig, that fuels the film.
The little girl, Regina, takes to the new environment at once and it is
through her that the essence of Africa is most poignantly felt. In
contrast, her mother comments, "It's beautiful. But you can't live
here!"
But live there they do. Through drought, plagues of locusts, local
anti-Semitism, and the war. Walter, aching to do something, goes to
Nairobi to join the British Army, while Jettel looks after the farm and works
in the fields with a troop of hired hands. She, in turn, is looked after
by a gorgeous German ex-patriot, Matthias Habich, and a stalwart Kenyan
houseman and cook, Sidede Onyulo. Meanwhile, the Holocaust destroys
Germany and the families they left behind. But it's all a distant echo
when you're trying to survive in a country as removed as Kenya.
As the long, leisurely tale unwinds over a decade, it explores a variety of
themes. The volatile and ever-changing relationship between husband and wife.
The understanding and respect that grows between peoples of very
different cultures. The question of the circumstances that would motivate a
very private man, whose personal life is barely hinted at, to spend long years
of selfless service anticipating the desires of his European employers. And,
especially, the unique temperament and mind-set of the permanent ex-patriot.
In the end, in Nowhere in Africa, it is the wife, transformed, who
doesn't want to leave. And the husband, who has aged but not grown up, who
does.
But in the end, most ex-patriots go home. I did. And so do the
Redlichs. For better or worse.