Out of Africa

Basic Info

IMDB Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089755/
Filmweb Link: https://www.filmweb.pl/film/Pożegnanie+z+Afryką-1985-1283
Runtime: 2h 41m
Year: 1985
Your Rating: Not yet rated
Date Watched: Not yet watched

Quick Take

A Danish baroness builds a coffee farm in colonial Kenya and finds her independence through an impossible romance and a profound love for Africa itself.

Story Overview

In 1913, Karen Dinesen, a Danish womsan seeking escape and title, enters into a marriage of convenience with Baron Bror Blixen, a Swedish aristocrat. They travel to British East Africa (now Kenya) with plans to run a dairy farm. Upon arrival, Karen discovers that Bror has unilaterally decided to establish a coffee plantation instead—at an elevation too high to be truly productive.

As Bror frequently abandons the farm for hunting safaris and extramarital affairs, Karen takes charge of the struggling plantation. She develops deep relationships with the Kikuyu people who work her land, establishing a school, providing medical care, and settling disputes with fairness and respect. Through these connections, she begins to find her true self beyond the confines of European aristocratic society.

During a social gathering, Karen meets Denys Finch Hatton, a free-spirited English big-game hunter and adventurer who shares her love for Africa's wild beauty. He takes her on safari, and they begin a passionate romance built on their mutual appreciation for the African landscape and its freedom. Denys eventually moves into Karen's home, but their relationship is complicated by his fierce independence and resistance to commitment—he refuses to be "owned" or tied down, even by love.

As time passes, tragedy and hardship mount. Karen contracts syphilis from Bror's infidelities, her friend Berkeley Cole dies from malaria, and the coffee farm continues to lose money despite her devoted efforts. When a devastating fire destroys her barn and coffee stores, Karen faces financial ruin. She decides to return to Denmark, selling the farm and ensuring the Kikuyu workers receive land elsewhere.

In the film's heartbreaking conclusion, Karen and Denys share a final dinner together, making tentative plans for the future. But Denys dies shortly after when his biplane crashes. Karen returns to Denmark, carrying with her the profound memories of her African years and the man who embodied its untamable spirit.

Key Cast & Crew

Director: Sydney Pollack - Known for his elegant, character-driven epics and working with major stars, Pollack brought his signature sweeping visual style to this adaptation, creating one of the most visually stunning films of the 1980s. Other notable works: Tootsie (1982), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Way We Were (1973).

Screenplay: Kurt Luedtke - A former newspaper executive editor who became a screenwriter, Luedtke adapted Isak Dinesen's 1937 memoir "Out of Africa" as well as biographies of both Dinesen and Finch Hatton, crafting a narrative that emphasized the romantic elements. Other notable works: Absence of Malice (1981), Random Hearts (1999).

Cinematography: David Watkin - His lush, golden cinematography of the Kenyan landscape became iconic, capturing both the grandeur and intimacy of Africa.

Music: John Barry - His sweeping, Oscar-winning score featuring the main theme built around Mozart's Clarinet Concerto became inseparable from the film's romantic vision of Africa.

Key Cast:

Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen (Baroness Blixen) - The Danish writer (pen name Isak Dinesen) who runs a coffee plantation in Kenya and narrates her experiences with literary elegance. Streep adopted a Danish accent for the role.
Robert Redford as Denys Finch Hatton - The charismatic English adventurer and big-game hunter who becomes Karen's great love but refuses to be tied down by conventional relationships or societal expectations.
Klaus Maria Brandauer as Baron Bror Blixen - Karen's unfaithful Swedish husband who prefers hunting safaris to farming and whose infidelities have devastating consequences for Karen.
Michael Kitchen as Berkeley Cole - Denys's friend and fellow colonial aristocrat who becomes one of Karen's closest companions in Africa.
Malick Bowens as Farah Aden - Karen's devoted Somali majordomo and trusted friend who manages her household.
Joseph Thiaka as Kamante Gatura - A young Kikuyu boy whom Karen treats for illness and who becomes her cook, later immortalized in her writings.

Top Awards

58th Academy Awards (1986):

Won: Best Picture
Won: Best Director (Sydney Pollack)
Won: Best Adapted Screenplay (Kurt Luedtke)
Won: Best Cinematography (David Watkin)
Won: Best Original Score (John Barry)
Won: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Stephen Grimes, Josie MacAvin)
Won: Best Sound (Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander, Larry Stensvold, Peter Handford)
Nominated: Best Actress (Meryl Streep)
Nominated: Best Supporting Actor (Klaus Maria Brandauer)
Nominated: Best Costume Design (Milena Canonero)
Nominated: Best Film Editing (Fredric Steinkamp, William Steinkamp, Pembroke Herring, Sheldon Kahn)

Notable: Out of Africa received 11 nominations and won 7 awards, dominating the ceremony. It competed against The Color Purple (which received 11 nominations but won zero), Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi's Honor, and Witness.

Other Recognition:

Golden Globe Awards: Won Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Original Score
BAFTA Awards: Multiple nominations
Fifth-highest-grossing film of 1985 with $87 million domestic box office
Total worldwide gross: $227.5 million

Production & Context

Why this movie exists: Sydney Pollack was drawn to Karen Blixen's memoir as material for a sweeping romantic epic in the tradition of classic Hollywood. Released during the 1980s when lavish period dramas were enjoying a renaissance, the film sought to recapture the grandeur of epics like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. Pollack saw in Blixen's story an opportunity to explore themes of love, loss, and the clash between freedom and commitment against the backdrop of one of cinema's most photogenic landscapes. The adaptation emphasized the romantic elements—particularly the Blixen-Finch Hatton relationship—more heavily than the source memoir, crafting a love story for the ages.

What it's really about beneath the plot: Beneath its romantic surface, Out of Africa is fundamentally about the tension between love and freedom, possession and independence. Denys represents an ideal of absolute freedom—refusing to be owned even by those who love him—while Karen struggles between her desire for connection and her own journey toward independence. The film explores how we find ourselves through place and relationship, and how colonialism, despite its harmful structures, could provide European women like Karen an escape from restrictive societal roles (even as it exploited African peoples). It's about the impossibility of truly possessing either a person or a place, and the bittersweet recognition that our most formative experiences are often those we cannot hold onto. The film also grapples, however imperfectly, with the romanticization of colonialism—presenting Africa as a place of European self-discovery while largely overlooking the African perspective and the violence of colonial rule.

Out of Africa ​

Basic Info ​

Quick Take ​

Tags ​

Story Overview ​

Key Cast & Crew ​

Top Awards ​

Production & Context ​