Nowhere in Africa
Columbia TriStar | Release Date: March 7, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It is so rare to find a film where you become quickly, simply absorbed in the story. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Everywhere in Nowhere in Africa, skill and art translate into vivid life.
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
This is an intelligent epic told without special pleading, a film able to cut deep enough to reveal a keen specificity of experience. Read full review
90
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
The movie gives us lovingly shot landscapes, portraits of extraordinary friendships, a great score, dialogue that only occasionally slips into history lessons, a number of memorably etched minor characters, a splendid performance by its youngest star and two mysteries. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The movie's strength is its refusal to offer easy answers. Read full review
88
USA TodayMike Clark
It's also as good as "Out of Africa." Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A lovely film with a deeply humane perspective. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldCary Darling
It has everything Oscar voters fall in love with: sweep, romance, accessibility and social conscience. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Enchanted and thrilling film. Read full review
80
Washington PostRita Kempley
Consistently absorbing family saga is primarily a safari of the soul. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
The movie's real strength lies in its intelligent, sympathetic account of the dynamic, difficult marriage of Regina's parents. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
This German movie, with its lush cinematography and lovely score, has the sturdiness of an old-fashioned Hollywood epic. What isn’t Hollywood is Link’s refusal to tell the audience how to feel at every moment. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Thanks to the superior performances by all four leads (including incredibly expressive Karoline Eckertz, who appears as the teenage Regina midway through), Nowhere in Africa is a meditation on everything from race and class and cultural impermanence to the inexhaustible malleability of youth. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Writer-director Caroline Link (who did the Oscar-nominated "Beyond Silence") adapted Stefanie Zweig's expatriate memoir gracefully, languidly and with full understanding of its heroine. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Audience empathy for the displaced Redlichs, coupled with the filmmaker's proffered charms of wise natives and their mysterious rituals, goes a long way toward making this lyrical travelogue a crowd pleaser. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
This picture is absorbing -- and eye-filling -- whether the prose and the passion are connecting or running on parallel tracks. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
If lush landscapes and exotic wildlife are what you're after, this isn't the safari for you. But many moviegoers will respond to its mixture of family drama and Holocaust-era history. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Beautifully shot on location in Kenya and filled with touching, almost magical moments, Link's film has been nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. Read full review
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
This is a fictional film, but it is based on a novel by Stefanie Zweig that is autobiographical. The adaptation was done by the director Caroline Link, whose screenplay is serviceable and whose directing is generally sure. Read full review
70
VarietyDerek Elley
Easy on the eye and effortlessly entertaining across almost 2½ hours. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Despite a shaky narrative focus and dramatic reticence, its journey is consistently absorbing. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderBill Stamets
For the most part this is a scenic and well-scored Holocaust survival tale. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Never quite escapes the Euro-centric blinders of its characters, but its engagement with their evolving sense of identity and story of empowerment and acceptance is nonetheless rousing. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
There's something too refined and emotionally neutral about Nowhere in Africa, as if Link had directed with white gloves. Maybe she knew how loaded this African-Jewish subject was and didn't want it push it too hard. Maybe that's why she won an Oscar. Read full review
60
Washington PostEve Zibart
What rescues the film is Gernot Roll's spare, almost aesthetic cinematography, and the quality of the acting. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Isn't really a dull film so much as an oddly quaint one that seems to find a comfortable perspective about drastic circumstances. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
With sumptuous widescreen photography and a pounding world-music score, the film makes for an absorbing travelogue at best, as pretty as a picture book and just as flat on the surface. Read full review
50
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
A straightforward epic, almost alarmingly quaint in the telling. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Schmaltzy and endless. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Though the story itself is undeniably fascinating, this somewhat prosaic account simply doesn't do it justice. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Sinks into melodrama. Read full review
More From This Movie

72 Critic Reviews

7.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL