The ones who stayed behind in Germany thought the madness would all be over in a year of two.
However, the family we meet in 1938 Breslau leaves everything they know -- home, career, and loved ones -- for a new life in the bush country of Kenya, "because we're Jews."
This atmospheric drama brings excellent casting and dialogue.
The notion of marriage for life, from erstwhile lawyer Walter -- "It's probably just nonsense that our ancestors persuaded us to accept."
And, of a local elder who has decided it is time to leave this existence: "This woman needs no help. She wants to die. The hyenas will take away her body at night."
Jettel (Juliane Kohler) to her precocious daughter Regina: "Differences are good, and intelligent people will never hold it against you."
When 9 May 1945 arrives, we brighten to the resonant voice of Churchill -- "We have never seen a greater day than this."
Jettel can't believe it when her husband wants to return to Germany, after the horrors of Hitler: "How can you believe in that country?"
"I believe I can be useful in a new country," he replies. "I'm proud to be an idealist!"
Though its theme is more momentous and profound, this film reminded me of 1983's "Cross Creek," in that it showed the transformation of a visitor/tourist to one truly part of the community.
The movie features some stunning landscapes, including Lake Bogoria and its thousands of flamingoes. It includes an amazing scene in which villagers seem engaged in a hopeless battle against locusts, but we witness the power of everyone pitching in, and never giving up. Now, that's a triumphant day, too.
In the end, our reluctant heroine Jettel, like Mary Steenburgen's Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in "Cross Creek," has become a part of the land. Lingering in a hand clasp with a food vendor, she confides that "I'm as poor as a monkey."
However, the family we meet in 1938 Breslau leaves everything they know -- home, career, and loved ones -- for a new life in the bush country of Kenya, "because we're Jews."
This atmospheric drama brings excellent casting and dialogue.
The notion of marriage for life, from erstwhile lawyer Walter -- "It's probably just nonsense that our ancestors persuaded us to accept."
And, of a local elder who has decided it is time to leave this existence: "This woman needs no help. She wants to die. The hyenas will take away her body at night."
Jettel (Juliane Kohler) to her precocious daughter Regina: "Differences are good, and intelligent people will never hold it against you."
When 9 May 1945 arrives, we brighten to the resonant voice of Churchill -- "We have never seen a greater day than this."
Jettel can't believe it when her husband wants to return to Germany, after the horrors of Hitler: "How can you believe in that country?"
"I believe I can be useful in a new country," he replies. "I'm proud to be an idealist!"
Though its theme is more momentous and profound, this film reminded me of 1983's "Cross Creek," in that it showed the transformation of a visitor/tourist to one truly part of the community.
The movie features some stunning landscapes, including Lake Bogoria and its thousands of flamingoes. It includes an amazing scene in which villagers seem engaged in a hopeless battle against locusts, but we witness the power of everyone pitching in, and never giving up. Now, that's a triumphant day, too.
In the end, our reluctant heroine Jettel, like Mary Steenburgen's Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in "Cross Creek," has become a part of the land. Lingering in a hand clasp with a food vendor, she confides that "I'm as poor as a monkey."