The White Masai
Encyclopedia
The White Masai directed by Hermine Huntgeburth, is a 2005 movie
about Swiss woman Carola (Nina Hoss
) falling in love in Kenya
with Maasai Lemalian (Jacky Ido
). The film is based upon an autobiographical novel by Swiss writer Corinne Hofmann
.
) is on holiday with her boyfriend in Kenya
. She falls in love with Maasai warrior Lemalian (Jacky Ido
), who is visiting dressed in the clothing of his area. At the airport on the way home she decides to stay. It turns out that Lemalian has gone to his home village in the Samburu District
. Carola travels to the area, and stays at the house of another European woman. Lemalian hears about her stay and comes to meet her. Eventually they start living together.
She travels to Switzerland to sell her shop there, promising Lemalian to come back to him. She does, and they marry and have a daughter. Carola buys a car and starts a shop. They lose money on the shop because Lemalian gives too much credit to friends and neighbors, and because they have to pay bribes to the mini-chief. Lemalian argues that this is no problem because she has more money in Switzerland.
The mini-chief demands that Carola hires his teenage nephew as a shop assistant. She has to accept this although she does not need him and he does not work hard. After some time, when he is just drinking beer and not working, she fires him. Later he returns and attacks her. A local judge rules that she has to pay two goats for firing him, but the boy's family has to pay her five goats to compensate for the attack.
Carola is frustrated by the female circumcision being practised in the village. She wants to stop it, but it is a long tradition that is not easily changed.
When Carola helps a sick woman Lemalian refuses to assist because the woman is supposedly bewitched.
Lemalian does not want Carola to be friendly with other men, even if she just serves a customer in a friendly way. He is very jealous and suspicious of Carola having a boyfriend. He even wants to kill a man he suspects.
Carola wants to return to Switzerland, taking their daughter with her. After some hesitation, Lemalian signs a form giving Carola consent to take the girl out of Kenya, although he suspects that she will not return to Kenya.
s and worldviews. Two individuals who believe that their worldview is superior and therefore right (thus Carola condemns female circumcision because it does not fit her cultural outlook while Lemalian cannot understand how she could talk to men without being unfaithful to him), and it is their inability to understand the other that brings about their misery, separation, and divorce.
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
about Swiss woman Carola (Nina Hoss
Nina Hoss
-Early life:Nina's father, Willi Hoss, was a German trade unionist and politician . Her mother, Heidemarie Rohweder, was an actress at Stuttgart National Theatre and later director of the Esslingen-based Württemberg State Playhouse .-Career:In 1997 Hoss graduated from the Drama School "Ernst Busch"...
) falling in love in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
with Maasai Lemalian (Jacky Ido
Jacky Ido
Jacky Ido is a Burkina Faso-born French film actor. He is best known to English-language audiences for his role as Marcel, the film projectionist in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film, Inglourious Basterds....
). The film is based upon an autobiographical novel by Swiss writer Corinne Hofmann
Corinne Hofmann
Corinne Hofmann is a Swiss author most famous for her multi-million selling memoir Die weisse Massai .Born on June 4, 1960 to a German father and a French mother, Corinne studied in the canton of Glarus and eventually went into the retail trade...
.
Synopsis
A Swiss woman Carola (Nina HossNina Hoss
-Early life:Nina's father, Willi Hoss, was a German trade unionist and politician . Her mother, Heidemarie Rohweder, was an actress at Stuttgart National Theatre and later director of the Esslingen-based Württemberg State Playhouse .-Career:In 1997 Hoss graduated from the Drama School "Ernst Busch"...
) is on holiday with her boyfriend in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. She falls in love with Maasai warrior Lemalian (Jacky Ido
Jacky Ido
Jacky Ido is a Burkina Faso-born French film actor. He is best known to English-language audiences for his role as Marcel, the film projectionist in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film, Inglourious Basterds....
), who is visiting dressed in the clothing of his area. At the airport on the way home she decides to stay. It turns out that Lemalian has gone to his home village in the Samburu District
Samburu District
Samburu District is a district in Rift Valley Province, Kenya. It covers an area of roughly 21,000 km² in northern Kenya where the Samburu tribe live...
. Carola travels to the area, and stays at the house of another European woman. Lemalian hears about her stay and comes to meet her. Eventually they start living together.
She travels to Switzerland to sell her shop there, promising Lemalian to come back to him. She does, and they marry and have a daughter. Carola buys a car and starts a shop. They lose money on the shop because Lemalian gives too much credit to friends and neighbors, and because they have to pay bribes to the mini-chief. Lemalian argues that this is no problem because she has more money in Switzerland.
The mini-chief demands that Carola hires his teenage nephew as a shop assistant. She has to accept this although she does not need him and he does not work hard. After some time, when he is just drinking beer and not working, she fires him. Later he returns and attacks her. A local judge rules that she has to pay two goats for firing him, but the boy's family has to pay her five goats to compensate for the attack.
Carola is frustrated by the female circumcision being practised in the village. She wants to stop it, but it is a long tradition that is not easily changed.
When Carola helps a sick woman Lemalian refuses to assist because the woman is supposedly bewitched.
Lemalian does not want Carola to be friendly with other men, even if she just serves a customer in a friendly way. He is very jealous and suspicious of Carola having a boyfriend. He even wants to kill a man he suspects.
Carola wants to return to Switzerland, taking their daughter with her. After some hesitation, Lemalian signs a form giving Carola consent to take the girl out of Kenya, although he suspects that she will not return to Kenya.
Thematic content
The themes of the film have been controversial. Ultimately, the film is about the clash of cultureCulture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s and worldviews. Two individuals who believe that their worldview is superior and therefore right (thus Carola condemns female circumcision because it does not fit her cultural outlook while Lemalian cannot understand how she could talk to men without being unfaithful to him), and it is their inability to understand the other that brings about their misery, separation, and divorce.