Released in December 2001, Nowhere in Africa is based on the autobiographical novel Nirgendwo in Afrika by Stefanie Zweig. The film chronicles the story of a Jewish family fleeing Germany just before WWII and making a new life for themselves in 1930’s Kenya. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2002 as well as five German Film Awards (Golden Lolas) in addition to many nominations. This is the second Oscar for a German film (after The Tin Drum which won in 1980).

The novel: Nirgendwo in Afrika was translated into English by Marlies Comjean. It is the story of Stefanie Zweig’s childhood as a refugee in 1930’s Kenya told from the child’s perspective. The story chronicles the Redlich family, Walter, his wife Jettel and their daughter Regina who flee Germany shortly before WWII. They move to a remote tenant farm in Kenya where they take the position of caretaker. The family is torn apart in the realization that they can not turn back to a quickly changing Germany and must confront their new life in Kenya. Though Kenya is thousands of miles away from Europe, letters from family and a British stronghold of the region continually remind the Redlichs that the War is never far. Jettel at first resists her new life at every turn while her daughter Regina quickly embraces the new culture, befriending their cook Owuor and learning Swahili. Unlike her parents she remembers little of her early years in Germany. As the family learns to embrace their new lives, Walter finds himself haunted by the life he left behind in Germany and feels he has a duty to return. Regina’s dream comes true when a baby brother is born in 1946. Walters’s choice to return with his family to Germany and help rebuild their homeland wreaks chaos on the family. Regina has few memories of Germany. Jettel has finally found a place for herself on the farm. She has lost all relatives and feels that there is nothing for her to return to in Germany.

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