My wife and I watched "Nowhere in Africa" again, a magnificent film based on the life of the magnificent Stephanie Zweig

[NNadir]

It's been sometime since my wife and I saw the film Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa). We decided to watch it again. It's largely in German - and since I can't understand spoken conversational German although I can read it with assistance, I needed the subtitles - with portions in Swahili and even a little bit of English.

From the Wikipedia page:

Nowhere in Africa (German: Nirgendwo in Afrika) is a 2001 German drama film that was written and directed by Caroline Link. The screenplay is based on the 1995 autobiographical novel of the same name by Stefanie Zweig. It tells the story of the life in Kenya of a German-Jewish family that emigrated there in 1938 to escape persecution in Nazi Germany. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film as well as the 2001 German Film Award (Deutscher Filmpreis) in five categories, including Best Fiction Film.[2][3]

Plot:

In 1938, the Redlich family flees to Kenya from Leobschütz in Silesia, Nazi Germany, to escape the increasing persecution of the Jews. Walter, a former lawyer, finds work as a farm manager and sends for his family. His wife Jettel has trouble adjusting to life in Africa, although their daughter Regina quickly adapts to her new environment, easily learning the language of the country and showing interest in local culture. Regina soon forms a close friendship with the farm's cook, Owuor, who helped save Walter's life when he contracted malaria. The only German contact that Jettel has is through a friend of Walter's named Süsskind, an ex-German who has lived in Africa for years. Jettel asks Süsskind why he was never married, and he states that he had a habit of falling in love with married women.

When war breaks out, the British authorities round up all German citizens and intern them, including Jews, separating men from women...

It is, in my view, a beautiful film, about love, betrayal, forgiveness, culture, racism, childhood, fascism and its ugly sister, imperialism and most of all, about the struggle for decency.

Stephanie Zweig was a real person and the novel on which the film was based was semiautobiographical. If her father hadn't managed to get her, and his wife, out of Germany in 1938, she probably would have ended up as ashes at Auschwitz.

The magnificence of the film gives a feel for what can be and is lost in genocide.

I didn't realize that the film is now over 20 years old, and I'm glad we watched again. It was powerfully moving.

[Callalily]

1. Thanks for the film recommendation.

I've just reserved a DVD from our local library.