Out of Africa

I finally managed to succumb to the cold/fever which is afflicting almost everyone I know. So I spent a lot of the weekend finishing reading Three Cups of Tea and watching the epic Out of Africa.

Out of Africa is a memoir of the life of Karen von Blixen on a coffee farm in Kenya during the last decades of the British Empire. The movie raises unanswerable questions about colonialism, power, modernization, ownership, and also choices in marriage, love, and fidelity. Karen is rather enlightened in that she provides health care and education to the Kikuyu who live and work on her farm, but the relationship is, nevertheless, one of colonialism.

When Karen's marriage of convenience to the philandering Baron Bror von Blixen fails, she falls for the ultimate unattainable man, Denys Finch Hatton, played by Robert Redford.

The movie is replete with scenes of beautiful African wilderness and wildlife, which alone is a reason to watch it. It was the perfect movie to watch while nursing a cold and wrapped in a blanket and daydreaming of travels in Africa...