Nowhere in Africa

I can see why this film won the Oscar last year for Best Foreign Film. (I just go ahead and put all those that were nominated on my list, hoping that they'll be released at some point in the States.) Actually, I'm going to quote the reason for it winning an award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (no, I've never heard of it either): "For its unusual narrative and historical perspectives on the international reverberations of World War II." That, on top of the heart-wrenching, but not over-played, emotions of the main players. A Jewish couple and their child emigrate from Germany to Kenya shortly before Kristallnacht and stay there throughout the war. It is a long film, but never plodding or dull. I couldn't help but think how it would feel to be forced to leave your homeland, live in another country so very different and hard to understand, and then have to decide whether to return to the country that ousted you, never knowing if you could trust it again. How much lonelier can you feel? It's clearly easier for the child, who grows up a daughter of both cultures, and all the wiser for it, but it's vastly more difficult for the parents. You cannot help but smile through your tears during the last scene and realize what an unbelievable distance these characters have traveled, in kilometers and in their hearts, since they first came to Kenya.

original title: Nirgendwo in Afrika
year: 2001
length: 141 min.
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0161860/combined