(2007 TV Movie)

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3/10
Why?
przgzr5 September 2007
There are worse movies than this one. I've seen some of them.

There are more boring movies, not just a few.

In fact, I didn't feel an hour and half was over when suddenly the closing credits appeared. But, at that moment I asked myself, and I still haven't find an answer: what was this about, and finally, why was this movie made at all.

The plot jumps from one thing to another, never going back to end it, the characters that seem important suddenly vanish, characters' motifs are week (if existing at all), especially the main one, Andrea, who first appears to be firm on the ground but soon changes her plans, directions, wishes, as if she has nothing in the world to do ever again. Such people exist, they are not rare, but Andrea seems to have a respectable career and a successful life most of her life, so it is hard to believe that she would manage to make it if she was a person which we see in these few days.

The acting didn't help make characters believable, in fact it is more like schoolchildren making performance in nursing home for some special occasion like first day of spring. And the fact that all the characters speak German, from taxi driver in Capetown (who would probably have some trouble even speaking English) to all the rest characters and none of them is German, looks like an answer to usual American movies where aliens who meet human race for the first time speak a perfect Ivy League English.

Maybe this movie was made because someone on German TV wanted to get a plane ticket to South Africa. Otherwise it could be made anywhere, including next street to director's office.
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4/10
Just another pseudo-dramatic romance film
Horst_In_Translation4 April 2015
Warning: Spoilers
"Mein Traum von Afrika" or "My dream of Africa" (from 8 years ago, set in Cape Town) is another television romance movie that runs for 90 minutes or slightly under just like all of these do. The director is Thomas Jacob who has had a long career (lots of "Polizeiruf 110") with also quite a few cheesy television romance movies like this one. He has not made a film for 5 years though, so maybe he is in retirement now. Uwe Wilhelm, the writer, also has done lots of television work. The main character is played by Jutta Speidel. She is known mostly for her work in "Um Himmels Willen" and for her relationship with a much younger Italian man. In this film, however, her love interest is played by Günther Maria Halmer, a couple years older than she. Halmer was in "Gandhi" and "Sophie's Choice". The rest of the cast is mostly African actors fitting the setting.

Possibly the weakest thing about this film was the whole supernatural sub-plot, the voodoo references etc. and it gets really bad when she wants to smell which direction the girl took. Like I felt she was too long in the heat and caught a sunstroke talking weird stuff. And the ending is very predictable as well and it's a bit ridiculous how they keep acting all the time as if it would be another turnout. And then there is lots of drama related to death, deceased mothers, fathers who want to sell their children, the usual goody two shoes and cringeworthy dialogs. The worst scene was possibly where Halmer asks a black woman if she is gonna stay at his place for the night and the camera switches to Speidel's character's face in full shock although it was obviously just a platonic statement. This film uses so much drama in order to aspire to be more than just another romance film, but it comes short for the most part. It's still a "schmonzette" where you have to "schmunzel" (maybe that's where the name comes from) about how bad it is during a lot of scenes. Not recommended.
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