Nowhere in Africa

Nowhere in Africa is a beautiful and moving film about a family of German Jews who flee Nazi Germany in 1938 and immigrate to Kenya. The film begins with Walter (Merab Ninidze), a former lawyer now working as a farm caretaker, sending for his wife, Jettel (Juliane Kohler), and daughter, Regina (Lea Kurka/Karoline Eckertz), to leave their middle class life and join him on the Kenyan farm. Although the young Regina takes to the new life almost immediately, the transition is devastating for Jettel and starts to disintegrate her relationship with Walter. Things get even harder for the family when war breaks out in Europe and British-controlled Kenya interns them for being German "enemy aliens," causing Walter to lose his job. The film, based on the autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig, follows the family's riveting story for almost a decade. Although it is firmly rooted in its political context and offers many lessons in tolerance (a few of which just border on the heavy-handed), the film is always anchored emotionally in the family's struggle to stay together against the odds. The interpersonal dynamics are amazingly complicated and well-drawn, aided in no small part by the incredibly deep and nuanced performances given by the entire cast. Nowhere in Africa could have easily fallen into the traps of feel-good sentimentality, but instead goes in many surprising directions and remains remarkably honest and complex to the very end. (Mongrel Media)