Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Nowhere in Africa/Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001)

6/30/2020

Nowhere in Africa/Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001) - Link's powerful African exile drama

♥♥♥♥♥

Two intimate photographs make up the major part of this poster for Caroline Link's Nowhere in Africa

A Jewish lawyer flees out of Germany to Kenya with his family shortly before Kristallnacht, and in the foreign African country they are made responsible for a small farm, while the situation worsens for their kin left behind in Germany.

Nowhere in Africa is written and directed by great German filmmaker Caroline Link (Sommertage (1990)), adapting the same-titled, autobiographical 1995 novel by Stefanie Zweig (Irgendwo in Deutschland (1996)).
The Jewish family, - and not least the mother and wife, portrayed in a central, fantastically human and strong performance by Juliane Köhler (The Whole Shebang/Alles Inklusive (2014)), - are very German, and their culture clash with the Kenyans is skillfully utilized. The film shows how differing cultures can coexist peacefully, - but not without each making their mark on the other.
Nowhere in Africa is handsomely produced and thoroughly well-made and well-acted. It insists that life for the persecuted Jews abroad wasn't all misery but that it also entailed new relations and love. Obviously many more difficulties for the family came after the film ends, as they ventured back home.
It is a valuable and very worthwhile grand film about being on the run, losing one's country, to be a refugee, - SPOILER with a very powerful climactic scene during an invasion of locusts, which with mythical precision seems to show the affectingly bared, vulnerable situation that the family find themselves in.

Top 10: Best German movies

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. €, approximately 7.9 mil. $
Box office: 24.3 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.07 times its cost)
[Nowhere in Africa was released 27 December (Germany) and runs 141 minutes. Shooting took place from January - April 2001 in Kenya and Germany. The film had a slow release that continued into 2004. It opened #71 to a 22k $ weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 78 theaters (different weeks), grossing 6.1 mil. $ (25.1 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was its production country Germany with 10.2 mil. $ (42 %). North America was the 2nd biggest, and Spain was 3rd with 2.3 mil. $ (9.5 %). The film won the Best Foreign Film Oscar. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won 5/6 German Film award nominations. Link returned with A Year Ago in Winter/Im Winter ein Jahr (2008). Köhler returned in My First Miracle/Mein Erstes Wunder (2002). Nowhere in Africa is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.51/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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William Friedkin has died

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Louise Fletcher has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

6/30/2020

Nowhere in Africa/Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001) - Link's powerful African exile drama

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