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Nowhere in Africa 20th Anniversary

Directed by Caroline Link

Cast: Juliane Köhler, Karoline Eckertz, Lea Kurka, Matthias Habich, Merab Ninidze, Sidede Onyulo

The 25th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival (May 25-30, 2021) will present a very special 20th anniversary drive-in showing of the Academy Award winning film, Nowhere in Africa, on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 at 8:30 PM at the Fort Mason Center.

The event will be highlighted by a Career Achievement Award tribute to German filmmaker and screenwriter Caroline Link, the film’s director. The tribute program will precede the film.

Presenting Partner: Goethe-Institut San Francisco
Sponsored by: Grants for the Arts
Community Partner: Jewish Film Institute

How to Attend:

Tickets are $50.00 per vehicle and can be purchased at BerlinBeyond.com. (Please note: Tickets must be secured in advance. No tickets will be offered or sold at the drive-in venue.) Fort Mason Flix is located at: 2 Marina Blvd Landmark Building C, Suite 260, San Francisco.

About the Film:

Directed by Caroline Link and released in 2001: “A love story spanning two continents, Nowhere in Africa is the extraordinary true tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich, his wife Jettel (Juliane Köhler, of Aimée & Jaguar) and their five-year-old daughter Regina each deal with the harsh realities of their new life in different ways. Attorney Walter is resigned to working the farm as a caretaker; pampered Jettel resists adjustment at every turn; while the shy yet curious Regina immediately embraces the country— learning the local language and customs, and finding a friend in Owuor, the farm’s cook. As the war rages on the other side of the world, the trio’s relationships to their strange environment become increasingly complicated as Jettel grows more self-assured and Walter more haunted by the life they left behind. As they eventually learn to cherish their life in Africa, they also endeavor to find a way back to each other.”

Winner of the 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as five 2002 German Film Awards (Golden Lolas), including best film, director and cinematography, Nowhere in Africa was written and directed by Caroline Link and is based on the best-selling autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig.

Caroline Link, 2021 Honoree of the Berlin & Beyond Career Achievement Award:

Caroline Link was born in 1964. After graduating from high school, she spent a year in the US. In 1984 she took her first steps in the movie business as an intern at Bavaria Film Studios. She then participated in many television and movie projects as a script editor and assistant director. Her graduation project at the Academy for Film and Television in Munich, called Summer Days, received the Kodak Advancement Prize at the Film Festival in Hof. In 1992 she made the children’s film Kalle der Träumer (Kalle the Dreamer) for German TV. In the same year she also started researching the script for Beyond Silence. In 1995 she began shooting the unusual story about a deaf couple and their musically talented child, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1999, her successful adaptation of Erich Kaster’s Annaluise & Anton (which also starred Juliane Kohler) was the recipient of many international awards. Nowhere in Africa was Germany’s highest grossing film of 2002. It the 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as five 2002 German Film Awards (Golden Lolas), including best film, director and cinematography. In 2013, Exit Marrakech, which premiered as a Special Presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival, won the Gryphon Award for Best Film at the Giffoni International Film Festival. All About Me (Der Junge muss an die frische Luft) is based on the biography of German comedian and presenter Hape Kerkeling, received the German Film Award’s Audience Award for most visited film at the local box office, with over 3.5 million admissions. Her latest film, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, based on the novel by Judith Kerr, will be released in US theaters and virtual cinema on May 21st by Greenwich Entertainment.

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