100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
It is so rare to find a film where you become quickly, simply absorbed in the story.
Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Germany
- 2001
- · 140m
Director
Caroline Link
Cast
Juliane Köhler,
Merab Ninidze,
Sidede Onyulo,
Matthias Habich,
Lea Kurka,
Karoline Eckertz
Genre
Drama
A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter, Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, while Regina readily adapts to them --- forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor. Over time, Jettel, Walter, and their relationship to Kenya evolve.
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What are critics saying?
100
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
Everywhere in Nowhere in Africa, skill and art translate into vivid life.
90
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
This is an intelligent epic told without special pleading, a film able to cut deep enough to reveal a keen specificity of experience.
90
Film Threat by Rick Kisonak
The movie gives us lovingly shot landscapes, portraits of extraordinary friendships, a great score, dialogue that only occasionally slips into history lessons, a number of memorably etched minor characters, a splendid performance by its youngest star and two mysteries.
88
USA Today by Mike Clark
It's also as good as "Out of Africa."
88
Boston Globe by Ty Burr
The movie's strength is its refusal to offer easy answers.
88
Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey
Enchanted and thrilling film.
88
Miami Herald by Cary Darling
It has everything Oscar voters fall in love with: sweep, romance, accessibility and social conscience.
88
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
A lovely film with a deeply humane perspective.
80
L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor
The movie's real strength lies in its intelligent, sympathetic account of the dynamic, difficult marriage of Regina's parents.
75
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Audience empathy for the displaced Redlichs, coupled with the filmmaker's proffered charms of wise natives and their mysterious rituals, goes a long way toward making this lyrical travelogue a crowd pleaser.
70
TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox
Beautifully shot on location in Kenya and filled with touching, almost magical moments, Link's film has been nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker
Never quite escapes the Euro-centric blinders of its characters, but its engagement with their evolving sense of identity and story of empowerment and acceptance is nonetheless rousing.
60
Washington Post
What rescues the film is Gernot Roll's spare, almost aesthetic cinematography, and the quality of the acting.
60
Slate by David Edelstein
There's something too refined and emotionally neutral about Nowhere in Africa, as if Link had directed with white gloves. Maybe she knew how loaded this African-Jewish subject was and didn't want it push it too hard. Maybe that's why she won an Oscar.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
Isn't really a dull film so much as an oddly quaint one that seems to find a comfortable perspective about drastic circumstances.
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