NOWHERE IN AFRICA
aka NIRGENDWO IN AFRIKA

Year: 2001
USA: Zeitgeist Films
UK: Optimum Releasing
Cast: Juliane Köhler, Regine Zimmermann, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Gabrielle Odinis, Karoline Eckertz, Herbert Knaup, Lea Kurka, Sidede Onyulo
Director: Caroline Link
Country: Germany
Language: German / Swahili (English subtitles)
USA: 140 mins
UK: 141 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains some moderate sex
USA Release Date: 7 March 2003 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)
UK Release Date: 4 April 2003


Synopsis

A love story spanning two continents, NOWHERE IN AFRICA is the extraordinary true tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich (Merab Ninidze), his wife Jettel (Juliane Köhler, of AIMeE AND JAGUAR) and their five year-old daughter Regina (Karoline Eckertz) each deal with the harsh realities of their new life in different ways. Attorney Walter is resigned to working the farm as a caretaker; pampered Jettel resists adjustment at every turn; while the shy yet curious Regina immediately embraces the country learning the local language and customs, and finding a friend in Owuor, the farm's cook.

As the war rages on the other side of the world, the trio's relationships to their strange environment become increasingly complicated as Jettel grows more self-assured and Walter more haunted by the life they left behind. As they eventually learn to cherish their life in Africa, they also endeavor to find a way back to each other.

Winner of five 2002 Golden Lola (German Film) Awards, including best film, director and cinematography, NOWHERE IN AFRICA was written and directed by Caroline Link (whose BEYOND SILENCE was nominated for a 1996 Best Foreign Film Oscar), and based on the best-selling autobiographical novel by Stephanie Zweig.