Afrika, mon amour (2007)

Germany, shortly before the beginning of the First World War: Katharina von Strahlberg learns that her husband, Colonel Richard von Strahlberg, is having an affair with Martha, the wife of his brother Heinrich. He has made her pregnant, and Martha shoots herself. Katharina therefore wants to leave her husband and looks for a job as a nurse, but no one will hire her—apparently Richard is using his connections to prevent it. So she accepts a surprising invitation to Africa from one of his business partners, Larson, and travels by ship to Dar es Salaam (then a German colony known as German East Africa). But she finds only Emilia, Larson’s wife, who is herself desperately searching for her husband, who has suddenly disappeared. Katharina looks for a nursing job here too, but once again no one will hire her—Richard has already sent a telegram warning the small German colony about her. Encounters with a doctor named Franz Lukas, whom she meets shortly after arriving in Africa, and with Victor March, a Scottish British officer, lift Katharina’s spirits. She helps Dr. Lukas with his research until Richard unexpectedly arrives in Africa to settle business matters. He brings their son Georg, a young officer cadet. During a hunting trip, however, Georg and Kurt Höller, another of Richard’s business partners, are murdered. In early November 1914—the First World War has by now begun—British and German troops fight at Tanga, 200 kilometers north of Dar es Salaam, in the Battle of Tanga. The relationship between Victor and Katharina is strained because they now belong to enemy nations. Katharina has also uncovered fraud amounting to millions in the business dealings of Richard, his brother Heinrich, Höller, and others, and suspects that her son’s murder is connected to it. In a bitter argument, Richard is shot dead by his own brother Heinrich. Katharina finds refuge in a job at the British military hospital, where she recognizes Larson, who is nearly dead from poisoning. A day later, he is transferred to the internment camp for Germans. Katharina, too, cannot remain with the British as a German, and works as a traveling nurse, where she meets Dr. Lukus again. Victor repeatedly saves her, but is eventually shot during an attack, loses his sight, and has to return to his homeland, where Katharina tracks him down. She goes back to Africa with him, and together they finally uncover the background to the murders of Georg and the others.