Regardless of the fact that the novel and film are set over 50 years ago, the relevance to today is not lost. With such a large number of refugees in the world today, Nowhere in Africa provides us with a glimpse of the struggle that refugees encounter daily. It also presents a major step in Germany's Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past). Whereas in New German Cinema, children were often a symbol for the generation conflict of directors who had 'no fathers but only grandfathers', in Link's film generations have overcome their conflicts.

Walter Redlich : 'It's not that I don't like the English, it's more... That they don't like me.'
Colonel: 'Well, they don't like me either! I'm Scottish.'

About the Author: Stefanie Zweig was born in Leobschütz, Upper Silesia in 1932. Her parents were well-educated and lived a typical upper middle class life. Though Jewish by birth, the family was not stringent in their practice of Judaism. At the age of 6, Stefanie fled with her parents to Kenya to avoid Nazi persecution in 1938. They did not know that Kenya was a British colony, only that authorities required 50 Pounds (about $2500 US today) per head. With the aid of the local Jewish community in Nairobi her father gathered the fee for his wife and daughter to follow him. However, he contracted malaria shortly after their arrival. He worked as a tenant farmer, a life that was light years away from his previous profession as a prominent lawyer in Germany. School became compulsory and her father was able to earn just enough to send her to a British school in Nairobi where she learned English. She hated school, was poor at sports and found it hard to make friends with the British children. She insisted on being at the top of her class so that her father wouldn’t feel his money was being wasted. By 10 she was aware of Auschwitz and what it meant for her relatives not to have escaped in time. By the time her bother was born in 1947, the family had found a niche for themselves in Kenya. In 1944 her father had enlisted in the British Army, which allowed him to return to Germany after the war. Upon their return Stefanie was confronted with an alien world. She could not read or write German. Frankfurt had been bombed to the core and it took the family 10 months to find a place to live.

Stefanie Zweig lives in Frankfurt and works as a freelance journalist and author of children’s books. For 40 years she was an arts editor at a newspaper. When her children’s books received awards she was inspired to try to write a novel about her childhood. Since then she has written two best-selling autobiographical novels, Nirgendwo in Afrika and Irgendwo in Deutschland. Since her childhood Stefanie Zweig went back to Kenya twice and she can still speak Swahili. She did not get involved in the film.

Movie Tid-Bit : After giving the radio to Walter, Süsskind wishes him good luck with the well; as he drives away, the reflection of the camera truck can be seen on the door of his truck, and the tire tracks from the camera truck are visible as the camera backs up. (Credit: imdb.com)

Commentary on the film’s director Caroline Link “Caroline Link carefully avoids Holocaust film fatigue by presenting fresh images that we have not seen before. She wisely focuses not on the war but on the juxtaposition of life in Germany and life in Kenya and of the stress of cultural displacement. By showing what the Holocaust meant for people who left Europe early enough to survive but who still suffered terribly because they had to leave their homes, their lives, and their loved ones behind, we get an insight into their life-altering but life-affirming decisions.” - Sue Garson of the San Diego Jewish Journal

About the Production: Nirgendwo in Afrika was filmed on location in Germany, the North Sea and Kenya from January through April 2001. The Films was produced by Peter Herrmann who came across Zweig’s novel in 1995. He purchased the rights to the novel before it became a bestseller. Caroline Link agreed in 1998 to write the screenplay and to direct the film. Both Herrmann and Link travelled to Kenya in 1999 to see the original locations. To make the film more authentic the original location of Kenya was chosen, opposed to another African location such as South Africa which would have been less risky. In August 2000 a production office was set up in Nairobi. That summer a drought developed. The typical rainy season in spring had produced no rain. International relief organizations started to send food to North Kenya, the area hit hardest by the draught. Nairobi was on the brink of disaster, flooded with Massai and their flocks. The production team had already invested too much to turn back. Relocation would not be an option.

Rain held off until November. By then the set in Rongai had been built and artificially irrigated corn fields had been planted in various stages to show that time had elapsed. Link’s vision was for the farm to appear arid and desert like, she wanted the audience to recognize the area as inhospitable but still impressive. The second farm was filmed in Ol Joro Orok, this was to apapear lush and fertile. An antique looking farmhouse was built in a flat valley with a tiny riverbed. All of the village and field scenes were filmed in Mukutani. This is a community located 40 km from Lake Baringo with about 700 villagers, most of whom had never seen a white person. The Board of Elders agreed to the filming after a long deliberation. After filming a fund was set up in Germany to finance aid efforts for Mukutani. Regardless of the many mishaps and delays the film wrapped the Thursday before Easter as planed.

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