Out of Africa is a 1985 American epic romantic drama film directed and produced by Sydney Pollack, and starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.

The film is based loosely on the 1937 autobiographical book Out of Africa written by Isak Dinesen (the pseudonym of Danish author Karen Blixen), with additional material from Dinesen's 1960 book Shadows on the Grass and other sources.

The book was adapted into a screenplay by Kurt Luedtke, and this screenplay was filmed in 1984. Streep played Karen Blixen, Redford played Denys Finch Hatton, and Klaus Maria Brandauer played Baron Bror Blixen. Others in the film include Michael Kitchen as Berkeley Cole, Malick Bowens as Farah, Stephen Kinyanjui as the Chief, Michael Gough as Lord Delamere, Suzanna Hamilton as Felicity, and the model and actress Iman as Mariammo. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. It was also a commercial success and won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Pollack.

Plot

In 1913, after being rejected by a Swedish nobleman, Danish aristocrat Karen Blixen proposes a marriage of convenience to his brother, Baron Bror Blixen. They plan to move to Nairobi, British East Africa, where Bror intends to use Karen's money to establish a dairy farm. She will join him a few months later, at which time they will marry. En route to Nairobi, Karen's train is hailed by big-game hunter Denys Finch Hatton, who knows Bror and entrusts her with his ivory haul.

Farah, the Somali headman Bror hired, greets Karen at the railway station. She is taken to the Muthaiga Club. She enters the men-only salon seeking her husband but is asked to leave. Karen and Bror immediately marry, and she becomes Baroness Blixen.

Karen learns that Bror has changed their plan and instead bought a coffee farm, but it is at too high an elevation to be very productive. Karen needs Bror's help managing the farm, but he is more interested in guiding big-game hunting safaris.

Karen comes to love Africa and its people. She looks after the Kikuyu people who live on her land, establishes a school for them, helps with their medical needs, and arbitrates their disputes. Meanwhile, she attempts to build a formal European homelife equal to other nearby upper-class colonists. She befriends a young woman, Felicity (whose character is based on a young Beryl Markham). Eventually, Karen and Bror's mutual feelings deepen, and they consummate their marriage. However, Bror continues pursuing other women. To fill her evenings, Karen makes up imaginative stories to entertain visitors.

As World War I reaches East Africa, the colonists form a militia led by colonial patriarch Lord Delamere, which also includes Denys and Bror. A military expedition searches for forces from the neighboring German colony of German East Africa. Responding to the militia's need for supplies, Karen leads a difficult expedition to find them and returns safely.

When Karen contracts syphilis from Bror, she returns to Denmark for treatment and recuperation while Bror manages the farm in her absence. Bror resumes his safari work upon Karen's return. They live separately after she discovers that he is still a philanderer and divorce when Bror expresses his desire to marry another woman.

The relationship between Karen and Denys develops after an ambivalent kiss at a New Year's party, with Denys ultimately moving in with her. Denys acquires a Gipsy Moth biplane and often takes Karen flying. Karen wants Denys to solidify their relationship, though he prefers his autonomy. When Karen learns Denys is taking Felicity on a private safari, she confronts him about his refusing to be monogamous. He assures Karen he only wants her, but feels marriage is immaterial. This eventually drives them apart, and refusing to meet Karen's ultimatum not to take Felicity flying, he moves out.

The farm eventually yields a good harvest, but a fire destroys it and the factory, forcing Karen to sell out. Before leaving Kenya for Denmark, she appeals to the incoming governor to provide land for her Kikuyu workers and sells most of her remaining possessions at a rummage sale. Denys visits the now-empty house. He says he no longer feels comfortable being alone and that his feelings for her have changed. He asks to join her on her journey back.

Denys leaves for a safari scouting trip, promising to fly Karen to Mombasa when he returns. Shortly after, Bror arrives to inform Karen that Denys' plane has crashed in Tsavo. Karen organizes his funeral, during which she recites an excerpt from an A. E. Housman poem about a celebrated athlete who, like Denys, died young and was not destined to decline into old age.

Before departing, Karen visits the Muthaiga Club to arrange for the forwarding of her mail. The members, having come to admire her, invite her into the men-only salon for a toast. Karen gives Farah a compass that Denys had given her and asks him to say her name so that she can hear his voice one last time. Sometime later, Farah writes to Karen, informing her that a pair of lions frequently visits Denys's grave.

A textual epilogue reveals that Karen became an author, publishing her works under the name Isak Dinesen, and never returned to Africa.

Cast

• Robert Redford as Denys Finch Hatton
• Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen
• Klaus Maria Brandauer as Bror and Hans von Blixen-Finecke
• Michael Kitchen as Berkeley Cole
• Shane Rimmer as Belknap
• Malick Bowens as Farah Aden
• Joseph Thiaka as Kamante
• Stephen Kinyanjui as Chief Kinanjui
• Michael Gough as Hugh Cholmondeley, Lord Delamere
• Suzanna Hamilton as Felicity Spurway
• Rachel Kempson as Sarah, Lady Belfield
• Graham Crowden as Henry, Lord Belfield
• Leslie Phillips as Sir Joseph Aloysius Byrne
• Annabel Maule as Lady Byrne
• Donal McCann as Doctor in Nairobi
• Benny Young as Minister
• Iman as Mariammo
• Job Seda as Kanuthia

Production

The film tells the story as a series of six loosely coupled episodes from Karen's life, intercut with her narration. The final two narrations, the first a reflection on Karen's experiences in Kenya and the second a description of Finch Hatton's grave, were taken from her book Out of Africa, while the others were written for the film in imitation of her very lyrical writing style. The pace of this film is often rather slow, reflecting Blixen's book, "Natives dislike speed, as we dislike noise..."

Klaus Maria Brandauer was director Sydney Pollack's only choice for Bror Blixen, even having trouble to pick a replacement when it appeared that Brandauer's schedule would prevent him from participating. Robert Redford became Finch Hatton, with Pollack thinking Redford had a charm no British actor could convey. Meryl Streep landed the part by showing up for her meeting with the director wearing a low-cut blouse and a push-up bra, as Pollack had originally thought the actress did not have enough sex appeal for the role. Before it went to Meryl Streep, the role of Karen Blixen was offered to Audrey Hepburn.

Out of Africa was filmed using descendants of several people of the Kikuyu tribe who are named in the book, including the grandson of chief Kinyanjui who played his grandfather. Much of it was filmed in the Karen / Lang'ata area near the actual Ngong Hills outside Nairobi. The Chyulu Hills stood in for the less picturesque Ngong Hills. As Karen's farmhouse was at the time of filming a part of a local nursing school, the filming took place in her nearby first house "Mbogani", which is a dairy today. Her actual house, known as "Mbagathi" is now the Karen Blixen Museum. A substantial part of the filming took place in the Scott house and in a recreation of 1910s Nairobi built in an area of unoccupied land in Langata.

The scenes depicting the Government House were shot at Nairobi School with the administration block providing a close replica of British colonial governors' residences. The train sequences were filmed along a section of abandoned track between Gilgil and Thompsons Falls some 97 km (60 mi) north west of Nairobi. The steam locomotive, taken from display in the Nairobi Railway Museum was non functional, therefore a diesel locomotive was hidden inside a box car behind the steam locomotive and the diesel pushed the train along while steam and smoke effects were provided. The scenes set in Denmark were actually filmed in Surrey, England.

Historical differences

While Out of Africa is based on Karen Blixen's memoir of the same name, the film takes several creative liberties, incorporating elements from other sources and omitting or altering aspects of Blixen's life and experiences in Kenya.

The film opens with the line, "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills," directly quoting the beginning of Blixen's book. Additionally, Karen recites, "He prayeth well, who loveth well both man and bird and beast," from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which becomes the epitaph on Denys Finch Hatton's grave marker.

However, the film omits significant events from Blixen's memoir, such as a devastating locust swarm, local shootings, and her detailed accounts of the German army's activities during World War I. The portrayal of her farm is also minimized; in reality, Blixen managed a 6,000-acre coffee plantation employing around 800 Kikuyu workers and utilizing an 18-oxen wagon. The film simplifies this by depicting a smaller operation with fewer workers.

Regarding her personal life, the film shows Karen owning only one dog, whereas she actually had two Scottish deerhounds named Dawn and Dusk, gifted to her as a wedding present. The romantic relationship between Karen and Denys is also altered; they met at the Muthaiga Club in Nairobi, not in the plains as depicted. Denys was absent from Kenya for two years due to military service in Egypt, a detail omitted from the film. Furthermore, while the film suggests a continuous romance, historical accounts indicate that Karen experienced at least one miscarriage during their relationship.

Denys Finch Hatton was an English aristocrat, the son of the 13th Earl of Winchilsea. This aspect of his identity is downplayed in the film, particularly through the casting of American actor Robert Redford. Director Sydney Pollack and Redford decided against using a British accent for the character, believing it would be distracting for audiences. Redford reportedly had to re-record some lines to remove traces of an English accent from earlier takes.

The film's depiction of the railway journey from Mombasa to Nairobi shows the train traveling through the Great Rift Valley, Kenya on the steep backside of the Ngong Hills. In reality, the railway is located on the higher, opposite side of the Ngong Hills. The passenger car featured in the film was a small combination office/sleeper originally used by supervisors during the construction of the Uganda Railway. This car was notably the site where a man was taken and killed by a marauding lioness, an event not depicted in the film.