Nowhere
in Africa
Director: Caroline Link
Distributed by: Zeitgeist Films
Released: November 2002
Country: Germany
A
fish-out-water movie is generally a comedy in which the main character is taken
out of his comfortable surroundings and plucked into a situation that baffles
and frustrates him, usually ending with the hero realizing he fits in more than
he thought. Crocodille Dundee comes to mind:
Outback nature boy goes to New York City and takes 90 minutes or so to
get used to it. But these type of films
don’t have to be comedies. In Gran Torino, for instance, Clint
Eastwood, a fairly racist and closed-minded curmudgeon (“Get off my lawn!”), after spending time with his
Hmong neighbors, utters, “Son of a bitch. I've got more in common with these
goddamned gooks than my own spoiled-rotten family.”
 |
| Fish out of water |
Nowhere in Africa
is essentially a non-comedic fish-out-of-water story. The Redlich family are well-to-do Jews living
in 1938 Germany. Walter, the father,
knows to get out while the getting is good—he moves to Kenya, of all places,
and gets a job farming, and soon sends for his wife and daughter. His wife Jettel enjoys it where she is and
doesn’t really want to leave; the daughter, Regina, is more game. The fish in this story is really Jettel, who
at first tries to put on a brave face living in the Dark Continent. But it doesn’t take very long before she
takes a look and smell around the place and realizes the days of crisp apple
strudels and schnitzel with noodles are over.
And she’s not happy about it, either.
 |
| Owuor and Regina |
Regina
makes friends with Owuor, the cook, who is a native Kenyan. Some of the bright moments of this film
involve this odd couple’s friendship, and his loyalty to the Redlich
family. Owuor is about as good a friend
as the Redlichs could hope for, but Jettel can’t see past the fact that he’s
African.
This
film is rather epic in scope—we see Regina at three different ages as she grows
up during World War II. An amusing scene
involves Regina’s stay at a British boarding school, preceded by a touching one
in which Regina says goodbye to a native school-age friend she made in
Kenya.
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| Jettel: "Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome, C'mon in!" |
But Jettel’s story is the
centerpiece here. Jettel is pretty,
tough, and will do what she has to in order to survive this ordeal. And when I say do what she has to, I mean she
is prepared to use her feminine assets to survive and earn the movie its R-rating. Juliane Köhler (who played Eva Braun in the
Hitler-in-the-bunker film from 2004, Downfall),
is terrific in the role. To me, the best
performances in film involve a character who changes subtly from the beginning
to the end of the story—like Pacino’s Michael Corleone, changing from innocent
war veteran to mafia kingpin in The Godfather, so that at the end of the movie he almost seems like a different character than at the film's start. Or perhaps a better example is Tom Cruise in Rainman, gradually transforming from selfish egoist to caring brother. This is that kind of performance. Watching Jettel, born with a silver spoon in
her mouth, adjust to living out of her German water is what makes this movie so
enjoyable.
 |
| The Nazis were rude |
The Title: Nirgendwo
in Afrika. They are, after all,
trying to hide there.
The Culture: Ever wondered what 1940 Central Africa was
like? Here you go.
Agenda Danger: The Nazis get a lot of bad portrayals in the
Best Foreign Films. But as Mel Brooks
once opined, they were very rude, so they kind of did it to themselves.
Best Picture that year: Chicago
Rating: 8 out of 10 fishes
