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This Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Film is well-deserving of its title. Nowhere in Africa, by German filmmaker Caroline Link, is a beautifully rendered portrait of the Kenyan landscape and its people. From the arid landscape of a summer drought to the panoramic summer deluge on the African plains, the cinematography in Nowhere In Africa is breathtaking. Although the setting of the film might be reminiscent of an especially enticing Discovery Channel special, deep human struggles are at the heart of this film.

Released around the same time as Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, "Nowhere In Africa" provides an alternative to the typical eastern-European holocaust stories that so many filmmakers have heart-wrenchingly brought back into our consciences. A seldom-explored part of World War II history is that a number of German-Jewish families escaped to colonies in Africa before the war broke out. Nowhere in Africa follows one such family through the trials of adjusting to a radically different culture while learning to survive in a totally unfamiliar land. Through the compassion of the native tribe, as well as the companionship of a few fellow refugees, Walter Redlich, a former lawyer, his wife, a vivacious, but somewhat spoiled woman named Jettel, and their young daughter Regina, adapt gradually to life in Kenya. In addition to the gorgeous scenery and insight into the culture of the local tribe, the gradual evolution of the family is one of the most fascinating aspects of the film. While the child adapts relatively easily, the mother struggles to abandon her old values, which include a penchant for shopping and afternoons sipping coffee in the city square. Meanwhile, the father dreams of returning to Germany after the war, where he can once again take up his old profession. The tension between husband and wife threatens to break up the family, but as the war progresses, and the news from home grows more and more ominous, they become closer, and eventually absolutely inseparable.

If you liked Monsoon Wedding, you are sure to enjoy Nowhere in Africa. If you didn’t see Mira Nair’s exquisite portrait of the delicate, difficult, and dysfunctional relationships within loving families, Nowhere In Africa will provide you with a story full of such taught emotions as well as genuine, redemptive love.

"Nowhere in Africa" can be seen at selected theaters near you.