Synopsis
- The film "You Are My Africa. A Black And White Love Story" is an autobiographical documentary about the filmmaker Helmut Schulzeck and his Kenyan wife Wangechi Schulzeck.
For Helmut Africa had mainly been Cape Town for a number of years. It was there where in December 2003 he met Wangechi Njenga from Kenya. She became "his Africa".
The film "You Are My Africa" tells the story of a love relationship with the two partners gradually acknowledging each other. It shows how a personal adventure develops into a clash of two cultures. And dealing with each other’s culture seems to be as limited as the interaction on a personal level: How does Wangechi deal with Germany and how does Helmut deal with Kenya? How does Germany deal with Wangechi and how does Kenya deal with Helmut? And eventually, how do Wangechi and Helmut deal with each other? The film gives answers to these questions.
Helmut and Wangechi got married in April 2006, during Wagenchi’s second stay in Germany. No one of Wangechis extended family in Kenya and Cape Town knew of this marriage until in December 2006 / January 2007 the two of them visited for the first time Wangechi’s family in Kenya. Helmut had broken with the custom of proposing to the bride’s father first and to offer him a handsome dowry in return for his wife. How will he be recieved by her family and how will he handle this precarious situation?
In the first part the film shows Wangechi in Germany. The second part shows the couple in Cape Town, where Wangechi had lived and worked for several years and where she now meets with two of her brothers. In the third and main part the film eventually shows the couple visiting Wangechi‘s family in the Kenyan highlands for a period of 4 weeks.
The film closely observes German-Kenyan family life in rural Kenya focussing on how Helmut tackles the new challenges in his life. Widespread prejudices in Kenya about “the rich white man” clash with Helmut’s fundamental difficulties in coping with life there.
Helmut is faced with the foreign culture again and again and everywhere. He assimilates this culture shock only slowly and not so surely, making life particularly difficult for his wife. She remains otherwise cheerful saying "You are my husband."
Helmut Schulzeck
Crew
- Director: Helmut Schulzeck
- Screenplay: Helmut Schulzeck
- Director of photography: Hans Albrecht Lusznat, Helmut Schulzeck
- Editor (Cut): Kai Zimmer
- Producer: Helmut Schulzeck
- Assistant to director: Wangechi Schulzeck
- Production company: Helmut Schulzeck Filmproduktion
- Supported by: Kulturelle Filmförderung Schleswig-Holstein
Awards
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Festivals
- (2008) 5. Hamburger Dokumentarfilmwoche, Hamburg
- (2008) 50. Nordische Filmtage Lübeck, Lübeck
- (2010) Beeld voor Beeld Amsterdam. Documentary Film Festival on Cultural Diversity, Amsterdam
