Skillfully-mastered German production captures the essence and the spirit of its characters without forcing the issues.
What happens when a tyrant takes over a country and begins the unfriendly pre-process of exterminating your family and an entire population of people? For the handful of those who managed to get away from the horrors of Hitler, they not only lost their loved ones and their past, but they partially lost their notion of home. From the perspective of three very unique characters, Caroline Links novel adaptation gives a whole new sense to what this word could mean. Nowhere in Africa is a must see film.
The Oscar winning picture for Best foreign feature is a beautiful film that takes us from the rapid exodus of a wealthy china plate decorated home-sweet-home surroundings to the un-even floors and weird animal noises environment where the notion of ‘tax returns’ is non-existent. There is no big ‘welcome to Africa’ party waiting for the family of three, but rather a grab a pail of water and chop some fire wood greeting or a bout with malaria instead. Shown as individuals with their own space and as a somewhat of a united family, we get a true glimpse into each of the character’s mind-set. Papa bear must bare the responsibilities that are associated to being the patriarch and fights to keep his family together and his own sanity in check, while mama bear – a former socialite named Jettel, who takes a while to accept her given fate as her selfishness and naiveté take over her personality. But it is the story of baby bear which is rewarding to the viewer and to the film, as it is told through the eyes of a 10-year old of has an ease and understanding as the beautiful character. Especially rewarding is the special connection she has to the family’s cook, a tall, dark and beautiful man named Owuor who notices the intelligence of the child who is way beyond her years. As the war that is heard through the radio comes to eventual end, the Redlich family who as matured enormously learning a new language and a new way of life and who come to embrace the differences must re-test the dynamics of the family structure.
The musical score that accompanies the film is used supplely and doesn’t overstate its presence. This film is loaded with feeling, with the African terrain basically acting as a sort of playground for the fluctuating degree of human emotions. Cinematographer Gernol Roll takes great care of giving us the splendor of this piece of Africa with a beauty found in the brown sand and earth tone roughness of the landscape. I like how the camera sweeps across the land pulling the viewer away from home following along the theme of separating oneself from the place that symbolizes security. The camera is also used in some shots to show the space between the characters, such as how the camera swoops in these multiple angles to show mother and daughter in various states of minds, going from one character’s facial expression in the foreground to another with full rotations of the camera with helicopter establishing shots. There is a pair of shots that I really liked; I thought that the scene that shows the un-opened envelope with a voice-over the reads the contents of that letter is especially poignant in commenting on the separation of the family. The other nice visual is when the young protagonist is shown in a long embrace and is literally switched in physical identity, no longer the child but revealed into the skin of a yonug teenager, who for some reason didn’t come and touch me in the same way-but for the sake of the story I thought it was a great idea. Perhaps the only other problem is that Link takes a little too long to tell this story and perhaps going for the epic tale format, obviously it worked wonders on Academy voters.
Finally, a film about the holocaust that doesn’t force the issues and lets the character develop and grow all by themselves. Particularly interesting to the viewer is the transition of the characters-showing the displacement in both a psychological and physiological sense. Nowhere in Africa wouldn’t have been my pick for best foreign, it is still a beautiful piece of work that thankfully doesn’t go for the sentimentality punch, but it might also suffer from a bit of blandness.
Viewed in original German language with English subtitles.
