"Afrika im Herzen", which means "Africa in the heart" of course, is a German television film from 2008, so this one is already comfortably over a decade old. This is the third film from a trilogy of movies starring at least the same two leads here. The first film includes the word "Africa" in the title, the second film includes "heart", so for this third movie they just combined it. The words from the title are as empty and meaningless as it gets really because it says nothing except that the film is set in Agrica (Namibia to be precise) and that romance is one of the genres here. The director is Peter Sämann and while I believe that there have been several really talented Austrian filmmakers active over the last 20 years, also in terms of small screen releases, he is the exact opposite. He is over 70 now and retired apparently for quite a while already and this is one of his later career efforts definitely as the man has been making movies and series since the late 70s. Luckily retired I must say. If we take a look at stuff like "Julia - Eine ungewöhnliche Frau", "Tatort", "Die Alpenklinik" or "Die Landärztin", it becomes painfully obvious that quality and talent are something you will not find in this man's works whatsoever. I always find it really shocking to see filmmakers have such long careers, but still come up with pretty much nothing worth watching. However, what is maybe more shocking (or not) is the fact that he was only in it for the money. I mean you cannot really blame him because he managed a career for decades despite the absense of vision (perfect description for the lead actress to, to an even much more terrifying degree), but he also directed the two earlier films that preceded this one here and if there was one thing safe, then that this is not gonna be a good film whatsoever. No chance. As for the writers, Beck and Eifler are new here and took over from another duo of filmmakers who wrote the stories for the two previous films. Beck and Eifler have worked together on other occasions and I see not a lot of talent in them either, although they are probably not as hopeless as Sämann. By the way, they have worked with him as well previously on other projects, which does not say anything really positive about them. But as bad as they ma be (or definitely are!), the one biggest deal breaker will always be Christine Neubauer. I personally consider her a definite contender for worst German actress of all time. She is fairly famous here in my country, but despite having been in a triple-digit amount of movies easily over the years and even despite having been a lead in the majority of those probably, she is not talented one bit. The epitome of ham really. But like I said with the director, it's tough to blame here. She's probably made millions throughout her career despite her absence of range and versatility. The ones really to blame are those who keep casting her. If at all. Maybe also just those who keep watching her movies and make sure the ratings are high enough for her to still get cast. On the male side, we have two people here. Also two actors you find so often in these trashy ARD Degeto movies and the only interesting thing about those are perhaps their English-sounding names. Cannot say anything positive at all about Timothy Peach and as for Francis Fulton-Smith, the big amount of terrible films he has been a part of cannot be made up for by his perhaps somewhat decent turn as Franz Josef Strauß years ago. There is no excuse for him either appearing in every film of this horrible trilogy we got here. Except money maybe.
Now let me elaborate on some scenes and inclusions here that stood out especially negatively. Neubauer of course plays the same character as always: a woman who is so kind-hearted and still succeeds on her own in all areas of life. Nothing new. We see that right away because her character is able to fly a plane. Another terrible scene incolving her was when she collapsed at her man's graveside. So cringeworthy. Very realistic too. I mean the day you visit a lost one's grave, it happens all the time somebody else is standing there, especially the man's twin brother. And let's not even talk about randomly finding a baby in the wilderness. Of course, Neubauer was immediately in her element going all in emotionally with all the wrong notes when she picks it up and also with lines like "who does something like that". As the baby cannot really have his own story line, we get a little African boy to take care of that. One who is looking for his parents and in trashy films like this, kids always run away and get lose, but hey in this very emotional drama at the end, luckily Neubauer's character is here right away to save him from the hole he fell into. Besides, these films are also always anti-male. Only kids are saved from that you can say. One guy here turns out a ruthless faker and the other's only purpose here is to constantly drool over Neubauer's character and be jealous when she starts something with the other fella. Now that is what I consider quality writing. The worst moment, however, was one that included a quote from another character, one of the African nurses. We have a woman with severe injuries at the hospital there and they assume it happened because a man hit her and this quote from said nurse was truly the most sexist thing I've seen in quite some time. And what does Neubauer's character do? She nods and agrees. Charming. If a man did or said something like that, then he would be an antagonist right away, maybe the main antagonist. I mean that evil fella dared to try to have sex with his brother's wife. Oh and are we really supposed to believe Neubauer's character really had success with blackmailing a representative of a really big pharmaceutical company? Yeah, right. But hey, at least Neubauer's character early on gives us a really nice quote about how these companies are not exactly interested in helping people, let alone helping them for free. Full ham again, takes a special (absence of) talent to mess up this line. Then again, the writers failed there too with how random this line was. Okay, well what else is there to say? This was an absolutely terrible movie and I have zero hope honestly the previous two are any better. All three films run for 1.5 hours by the way, which is the standard running time for small screen releases here in my country, especially if Degeto is involved. Oh yeah, they also tried to make a somewhat economical impact here with the reason why this pharmaceutical company was there at all, which was linked to a special fruit. So the film also wanted to be critical of society in a way elaborating on how the poor are even further exploited. Again, an execution as shoddy as it gets. And finally, one approach that always makes it obvious how much talent is involved with films like this (or how little) is the way kids characters are written. I am not only talking about the African boy here and his pseudo drama, but also about the two White children. Early on, with their quotes about their dad and also about Fulton-Smith's character not being a bad choice for Neubauer's character was as cringeworthy as it gets looking at how they wanted to manipulate the audience into thinking that he is of course the right one, even if Neubauer's character quickly afterwards had sex with Peach's character. And we see another "sensual" scene involving Neubauer topless, even if we don't see anything of course. Thank God! She always delivers more sexuality in her movies compared to most other female actors from my country. Some that may be as bad, but yeah, these references take down Neubauer to an even lower level in my opinion. I just think that every movie is in she makes it unwatchable really. It sounds harsh, but it is the truth. The already really low rating for this film here is still way too high. And no respect for Peach either to return for a third film in a most ridiculous turn of events. And all this after his character died earlier and really there was nothing and nobody that forced him to return. Finally, there is that elderly, apparently wise African woman who dishes out wisdoms here and there like speaking about a tough challenge Neubauer's character has to go through with the new man in her life. I don't even know what to say. So pseudo important everything about this film, yet so fake, but you can really feel the filmmakers approach to trick people into thinking this was actually a deep meaningful movie annd authentic character study. I feel bad for people who fall for this mess. The simple-minded. The only good thing here is that they never made a fourth movie. Absolutely repulsive that films like this are financed by everybody's GEZ money. I am not only talking the gigantic salaries for the cast and crew here, but also for example getting everybody to Namibia and back. And not just once, but three times! Shameful. Massive thumbs-down for this project from every perspective. Highly not recommended.
Now let me elaborate on some scenes and inclusions here that stood out especially negatively. Neubauer of course plays the same character as always: a woman who is so kind-hearted and still succeeds on her own in all areas of life. Nothing new. We see that right away because her character is able to fly a plane. Another terrible scene incolving her was when she collapsed at her man's graveside. So cringeworthy. Very realistic too. I mean the day you visit a lost one's grave, it happens all the time somebody else is standing there, especially the man's twin brother. And let's not even talk about randomly finding a baby in the wilderness. Of course, Neubauer was immediately in her element going all in emotionally with all the wrong notes when she picks it up and also with lines like "who does something like that". As the baby cannot really have his own story line, we get a little African boy to take care of that. One who is looking for his parents and in trashy films like this, kids always run away and get lose, but hey in this very emotional drama at the end, luckily Neubauer's character is here right away to save him from the hole he fell into. Besides, these films are also always anti-male. Only kids are saved from that you can say. One guy here turns out a ruthless faker and the other's only purpose here is to constantly drool over Neubauer's character and be jealous when she starts something with the other fella. Now that is what I consider quality writing. The worst moment, however, was one that included a quote from another character, one of the African nurses. We have a woman with severe injuries at the hospital there and they assume it happened because a man hit her and this quote from said nurse was truly the most sexist thing I've seen in quite some time. And what does Neubauer's character do? She nods and agrees. Charming. If a man did or said something like that, then he would be an antagonist right away, maybe the main antagonist. I mean that evil fella dared to try to have sex with his brother's wife. Oh and are we really supposed to believe Neubauer's character really had success with blackmailing a representative of a really big pharmaceutical company? Yeah, right. But hey, at least Neubauer's character early on gives us a really nice quote about how these companies are not exactly interested in helping people, let alone helping them for free. Full ham again, takes a special (absence of) talent to mess up this line. Then again, the writers failed there too with how random this line was. Okay, well what else is there to say? This was an absolutely terrible movie and I have zero hope honestly the previous two are any better. All three films run for 1.5 hours by the way, which is the standard running time for small screen releases here in my country, especially if Degeto is involved. Oh yeah, they also tried to make a somewhat economical impact here with the reason why this pharmaceutical company was there at all, which was linked to a special fruit. So the film also wanted to be critical of society in a way elaborating on how the poor are even further exploited. Again, an execution as shoddy as it gets. And finally, one approach that always makes it obvious how much talent is involved with films like this (or how little) is the way kids characters are written. I am not only talking about the African boy here and his pseudo drama, but also about the two White children. Early on, with their quotes about their dad and also about Fulton-Smith's character not being a bad choice for Neubauer's character was as cringeworthy as it gets looking at how they wanted to manipulate the audience into thinking that he is of course the right one, even if Neubauer's character quickly afterwards had sex with Peach's character. And we see another "sensual" scene involving Neubauer topless, even if we don't see anything of course. Thank God! She always delivers more sexuality in her movies compared to most other female actors from my country. Some that may be as bad, but yeah, these references take down Neubauer to an even lower level in my opinion. I just think that every movie is in she makes it unwatchable really. It sounds harsh, but it is the truth. The already really low rating for this film here is still way too high. And no respect for Peach either to return for a third film in a most ridiculous turn of events. And all this after his character died earlier and really there was nothing and nobody that forced him to return. Finally, there is that elderly, apparently wise African woman who dishes out wisdoms here and there like speaking about a tough challenge Neubauer's character has to go through with the new man in her life. I don't even know what to say. So pseudo important everything about this film, yet so fake, but you can really feel the filmmakers approach to trick people into thinking this was actually a deep meaningful movie annd authentic character study. I feel bad for people who fall for this mess. The simple-minded. The only good thing here is that they never made a fourth movie. Absolutely repulsive that films like this are financed by everybody's GEZ money. I am not only talking the gigantic salaries for the cast and crew here, but also for example getting everybody to Namibia and back. And not just once, but three times! Shameful. Massive thumbs-down for this project from every perspective. Highly not recommended.
