"Relocation Projects"

Northfork
directed by Michael Polish
written by Mark & Michael Polish
starring James Woods, Nick Nolte, Daryl Hannah, Mark Polish, Peter Coyote, Duel Farnes,
Robin Sachs, Antony Edwards, Ben Foster, Kyle MacLachlan, Claire Forlani

Nowhere in Africa
written and directed by Caroline Link
based on the novel by Stefanie Zwieg
starring Juliane Kohler, Merab Ninidze, Lea Kurka, Sidede Onyulo, Karoline Eckertz


          The Polish Brothers display a certain amount of self-importance.  With their third feature, they still present an amateur "look at me" approach.  This isn't entirely bad, it shows they are excited about their work and their subject matter.  Unfortunately, it can fail them if the audience isn't as excited or amused as they might be. 
          Northfork starts out very serious and somber, the photography showing very little color, the actors revealing no smiles, and the dialogue pushing the boundaries of metaphor with more reference to angels than Wings of Desire.  Images are shoved down the throat as well with a number of shots pointed at mirrors and others creatively linking scenes with visual associations.
            The people of Northfork, Montana are being relocated to make way for a new hydroelectric dam which will flood their valley.  They spend their last hours at a church led by Father Harlan (Nolte).  At the end of his sermon, he is visited by a couple wanting to return their adopted son Irwin (Farnes), claiming that he is defective and too ill to make the journey out of town.  Meanwhile a group of agents are sent out by the state to force out the remaining citizens who refuse to leave. 
           Then the film gets weird.   Irwin follows a creature that looks like something William Wegman might have dreamed up and finds himself in a house occupied by a quartet of eccentric angels.  They are the ornate englishman Cup Of Tea (Sachs), the androgenous Flower Hercules (Hannah), the blind scholar Happy (Edwards) and a mute cowboy called Cod (Foster).  The film becomes excessive and the dialogue turns less allegorical and more pun-filled.  "There is nothing fowl about these wings", says one of the angels.  As corny as this is, the picture actually becomes more enjoyable in its mediocre attempts at being a Coen Brothers film of a David Lynch script. 
             Two of the state agents, Walter O'Brien (Woods) and his son Willis (Polish) are assigned the removal of the aptly named Mr. Stalling (Marshall Bell) and his two wives.  Stalling not only refuses to leave, he has built a replica of Noah's Ark to reside in once the flood comes.  To convince the trio to depart, the O'Briens tell an old joke, yet describe it in detail and with great earnest that it is void of all humor.  It was at this point that I fully understood the genius of the Polish Brothers, even if I wasn't completely buying into it.
              If certain things weren't so obvious in the film's direction, I might have other ideas of what the story is about.  The cinematography is so forthright in an attempt to be a black and white film without actually being in black and white - an American flag and a ketchup bottle have no sign of redness whatsoever and only the actor's faces show any sign of pigmentation,  when they aren't being bleached by white light - I might have expected a Wizard of Oz homage of color at the end when the transitions had taken their place.  For all the religious overflow, Northfork can be appreciated better as a meditation on changes going on in America in the 1950s.  References to fast food and automotive competition give hint to what may have been the ideas behind all the winged nonsense bleeding all over the screenplay.  Sure the loss of innocence this country embarked on fifty years ago included the decrease in Christian belief, yet it was only one thing for the movie to address. 
             Northfork is a beautiful film, nonetheless, and if you like a bit of surrealism in your entertainment, it is enjoyable as well.  It tries really hard to be beautiful though and the humble pretension is deeply obnoxious.  There is something about the Coens' movies that give a playful wink to their audience and everything is understood but nothing is ever deluged as in this film.  Their film The Man Who Wasn't There takes on the same sadness, absurdity and decade as Northfork much more effectively. 

           In Nowhere in Africa, Caroline Link never points fingers at what she is showing the audience.  Everything is just there to be seen as if the camera doesn't even exist.  When some Africans in the film make a ritual sacrifice in a desperate plea for rain, the next shot consists of a family inside their home, rain pouring out their small windows.  There is no reference to the rain nor is the audience blatantly drawn to the connection.  It is this sort of accordance between viewer and film maker that gives the Oscar winning film a beauty beyond the magnificent shots of its African locations.
            Based on Stefanie Zwieg's autobiographical novel, the picture tells of the Redlich family, three Jews who escape Germany before the second world war to live in Kenya.  Walter (Ninidze) arrives first and sets up as the manager of a cattle farm which is facing a serious drought.  He befriends a cook named Owuor (Onyulo) who saves him from terrible illness.  Once well, he sends for his wife Jettel (Kohler) and little daughter Regina (Kurka), telling them of necessities to bring and fanciful trinkets to leave behind.  Used to a life of privilege, Jettel does just the opposite, arriving with valuables which she keeps packed, declaring the family will be leaving their dreadful new home soon enough.  She displays great hypocrisy in her treatment of the natives, particularly Owuor, who she at first orders around like a slave.  Meanwhile Regina, with her perfect Scout Finch hairstyle to match her broad-mindedness, opens her heart up to the cook in a relationship that may recall that of P.K. and Geel in The Power of One. 
            The story rolls out over the next ten years as Walter is ironically thrown in prison for being German once the war breaks out, gains new employment on a maize farm thanks to his wife's questionable tactics, and joins the allies to fight the Nazis.  Jettel grows to love her new continent and the people around her.  Regina adapts perfectly to the lifestyle and culture even becoming involved with a young boy before being shipped off to a boarding school where she learns how narrow minded the rest of the world can be. 
          As far as narrative, the film is from Regina's point of view, toned in innocence and wild-eyed bewilderment.  There becomes too much emphasis on her parent's marriage troubles that goes so far to take place when she isn't around, becoming less a story she tells (She is even heard in voice over during the film's bookends) than an anonymous account.  Aside from this problem, the direction is consistently honest.  Link never feels the need to meander through the scenery nor does she put too much emphasis on any one scene as being too much dramatic discourse.  Life for the Redlich family just unfolds in front of the camera and draws the audience in for relational and emotional commitment. 
           Nowhere in Africa is fairly long, yet it never drags nor does it leave you wanting more.  Compared to Polanski's The Pianist, another recent Oscar winning film about the plight of Jews during the Holocaust, there is less familiarity and less predictability.  While we were in complete knowledge that Wladyslaw Szpilman would survive his picture, knew the war would end, there is less assurance of closure during Link's film.  Sure we know from the narration that Regina will live to tell her tale, but Nowhere in Africa isn't so much about survival than adaptation. 
            Caroline Link has crafted a near-perfect film.  Not without its archetypes and allusions, Nowhere in Africa is an original yet simple film.  She responsibly accepts no gimmicks and never holds back.  You trust that slaughtered animals are actual and accept nudity within a culture is natural.  Overall and most appreciated, she shows a realist integrity without the pessimism commonly found there.

Anthony Edwards manages to find a role even more nerdy than Gilbert from Revenge of the Nerds.