Out of Africa

In 1913, Karen Dinesen leaves her native Denmark for Kenya, in order to operate a farm there with her future husband Baron Blixen. Blixen, who arrived before she did, has already planted coffee and spends the rest of his time hunting. During his long absences, Karen gets to know the country and its people, including the British big-game hunter Denys Finch Hatton, whose blunt, no-nonsense tone fascinates her from the beginning. Having contracted syphilis from Blixen, Karen has to return to Denmark for treatment, but comes back to Kenya during World War I in order to continue running the plantation together with the Kikuyu people living there. Hatton, who knows that Blixen no longer lives with Karen, looks after her, opens her eyes to the beauty of the country and its inhabitants and finally moves in with her. The two spend wonderful times together, but he insists on maintaining his freedom. When Karen tries to impose restrictions on him, their relationship suffers…

Landscape long shots and a romantic employment of colonial style create the setting for this magnificent love story based on the memoirs of the Danish writer Isak Dinesen.



Print courtesy of Universal Studios