Following her award-winning successes 'Beyond Silence' and 'Annalouise and Anton', Caroline Link, shot Nowhere in Africa, based on Stefanie Zwieg's autobiographical bestseller. It is a poignant story of love and family focusing on a German-Jewish family who were forced to leave their protected, middle-European lives and faced the challenges of adapting to an alien African continent.

In her novel, Stefanie Zwieg tells the story of her own childhood from the perspective of herself as a child. What aspect did you focus on in the film?
In my version of the story I concentrate very much on the relationship of the parents, their love for each other. They suddenly find themselves in difficult circumstances; their love falters and must be re-found. Stefanie Zweig tells the story from the perspective of a child. She describes her own experiences and memories. But for me, Regina's mother Jettel is the most exciting character. What is most fascinating is her development to an independent and mature woman, who not only has to rethink her own position and priorities in life but also her relationship towards her family.

In spite of the lack of infrastructure you made a conscious decision to shoot in Kenya and not in South Africa. Why?
Peter Hermann (producer) and I agreed from the beginning that we should have African actors an