neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Nowhere In Africa
	Caroline Link Juliane Köhler, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo, Karoline Eckertz, Lea Kurka 2002		When is a Holocaust movie not a Holocaust movie? When it's the 2002 foreign-film Oscar winner from Germany, "Nowhere in Africa." Rather than reel after reel of concentration-camp footage or guns 'n' mortar battles, this adapted-from-memoir drama blends a family saga, primarily set in Kenya during World War II, with a young girl's coming-of-age story. It tells of a Jewish father, mother and daughter who flee the Nazi regime in 1938 for a farm in Africa. Once in Kenya, Jettel and Walter Redlich (Juliane Köhler, Merab Ninidze) struggle to work the fields as tenant farmers. The lack of creature comforts and the shock of African life are daunting to the Redlichs, but daughter Regina — played by Lea Kurka as a little child and Karoline Eckertz as an older girl — embraces the local culture with the help of Owuor (Sidede Onyulo), the farm's cook. Still, the horror of war touches them. "Nowhere in Africa" is based on an autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig. Written and directed by Caroline Link, the film feels more like drama than document. It gets the benefit of the doubt, due to its offbeat angle, inherent verity, soulful cast and sweeping African vistas.