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 'm reasonably certain that Caroline Link's "Nowhere
in Africa" will strike a cord with a lot of people. After all, it did when
the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 2002, although how a movie made in 2001
qualifies for the 2002 Oscars, given out in 2003, is just one more mystery in a
long line of mysteries when it comes to the American tradition most in need of
common sense known as the Oscars.
In "Nowhere", a Jewish family flees their native
Germany in 1938 when Nazism threatens to consume the country. Feeling the
growing hostility against them, the father, Walter (Merab Ninidze), has gone on
ahead to Africa to make way for his wife and child. Soon, Walter's wife Jettel
(Juliane Kohler) and young daughter Regina (Karoline Eckertz) comes to join him,
leaving everything they know and cherish behind. Finding themselves in the
middle of nowhere in the African countryside, the family works as caretakers for
a British rancher.
As Jettel tells her daughter, the family is now poor, and
can't afford luxuries like chocolate. Of course that doesn't prevent Jettel, who
comes from a family of middle class people, from bringing expensive utensils and
buying a new dress for the trip, while ignoring Walter's letter telling her to
buy practical shoes and a fridge. At first Jettel is unable to acclimate to her
new African surroundings, but young Regina, spurred by curiosity inherent in all
children, warms quickly to her new world. And just when the family is starting
to settle into their new life, World War II breaks out and Walter is separated
from Jettel and Regina.
If you're starting to get the feeling that "Nowhere in
Africa" is a drama of epic proportions, then your instincts are correct.
The movie takes place over a 9-year span, and there's enough life-altering
moments in-between those 9 years to fill out another dozen movies. As previously
mentioned, I'm sure "Nowhere" will appeal to a lot of people, with its
themes of isolation and paradise lost and found and lost again. Director
Caroline Link makes great use of cinematographer Gernot Roll, and the African
countryside is glorious in its simplicity and natural wonder. Link also makes a
conscious decision to keep the scenes from becoming static, giving the film a
feeling of urgency. This is necessary in a movie that has plots only interesting
to the people living them.
At nearly two hours and 20 minutes, "Nowhere" is
perhaps 30 minutes too long and 3 life-altering plots too many. Based on a novel
by Stefanie Zweig, the movie is narrated by young Regina, who ages 9 years and
blossoms into a young woman by the end of the film. The young Regina is played
by the wide-eyed Karoline Eckertz, with Lea Kurka stepping into the role in the
second half. Young Karoline is spectacular in the role, and her relationship
with Owuor (Sidede Onyulo), the family's African cook, is the most beautiful
part of the whole film.
The star of "Nowhere" is Juliane Kohler as
Jettel. Once the family is separated by the war, it's Jettel who has to take
charge. Although she had refused to accept the family's new situation in Africa,
Jettel eventually accepts the notion that their home is lost and they must now
make due with what's at hand. Forced to suddenly become more than just a wife,
Jettel arranges for the family to have a new job and home, and finally becomes
her own woman, even if she's still unsure what that means.
But there is one major beef I have with the movie. Through
all the trials and tribulations of the family, the screenplay either doesn't
care, or wishes to gloss over, the notion of foreigners owning African land.
Like Owuor, the Africans have become subservient workers, taking on menial jobs
while white people lord over them. Even Walter and his family, refugees from
their own home, have become the masters of the native Africans. The film
approaches this subject once for a couple of seconds, but shows its cowardice by
ignoring it all the other times.
On the plus side, the film's star, Juliane Kohler, is a
remarkable actor and her transformation from hesitant refugee to full-fledge
master of her own fate is gradual enough to be believable. Surprisingly, the
character of Walter seems to have a split personality throughout the film, as if
the screenplay couldn't decide what kind of man he is. Whereas Jettel and Regina
go through character arcs, Walter's development is all over the place, and he
actually seems to regress later on in the film.
"Nowhere in Africa" is a good film with some
breathtaking cinematography. Although I wish it had been brave enough to address
the question of land ownership, and why natives are working for foreigners and
not the other way around.
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