I Dreamed of Africa (a film review/summary)

Africa’s mystery has always haunted life’s journey for Kuki Gallman since she was a child and mostly after the horrible car tragedy which yielded all (passengers on board) except her to demise. Little did Kuki’s dreaming know that reality would give birth to her co-existence with Africa and which was going to turn the major point in her life and its truthful meaning. Any viewer would say it’s truly worth the ‘big screen’ to have constructive critic that touches people with insights and purpose at depth, thus.

Kim Basinger’s superb acting was commended through not only the Best Actress title bestowed by Oscar awards but Kuki herself too who liked Basinger’s portrayal of the main role in the film I dreamed of Africa, an attempt to showcase Gallman’s true life story. Only she expressed slight discontent on the film’s scripting thereby saying “The film is a film. But the book was the real story” –in reference to her autobiography which presently has over twenty translations.

When Kuki considered her husband’s (Paolo) idea of emigrating to Northern Kenya with her son (Emanuele), it never seemed right at first. Kuki had to hugely adapt to the omnipresent annoyances made by the ever-dynamic wildlife around and the unusually hunting neighborhood. Her initial reactions (at least as projected in the film) would explain how she least expected the circumstances that followed. Living her definition of simplicity under domestic confines (from her earlier perspective of African life while in the homeland of origin) had amounted to some misunderstanding with Paolo who, in contrary to the mundane, had gotten accustomed to the African culture of everyday survival, or means that were almost ritual. Paolo’s adventuresome character may be perceived as one of real African descent who chose to wander off the range, where wild jeopardy lurked freely than the worse of his own possibilities, to keep complacent with a dying ecological balance outside the fold. Emanuele, likewise, became tied up with his love for reptiles which outgrew his mother’s disapproval in the long run, as he expressed serious interest in herpetology.

Later on, Kuki saw through it learning that no matter how hard she tried to keep things under her best control or resist the flow, the nature of that environment stayed responsive with its own course, still in accordance with its unique set of laws, humanities might take forever to unravel. Kuki at the time had grown a heart filled with concerns beyond her own, giving substantial involvement to the new community which her family had come to love. Since then she had been supportive of her husband’s campaign against poaching of elephants and rhinos in Somalia for which, they especially hired a private squad of thirty rovers for seizure of poachers. This initiated Kuki’s lifelong passion for wildlife conservation, with a constant source of inspiration at having both Paolo and Emanuele who were profoundly involved with the animals and the land where they possessed a 100,000-acre cattle ranch in Ol Ari Nyiro.

Something to be discerned about the immensity of Africa’s way with nature had founded stronger roots on Kuki’s ideals after the two separate tragedies. Her husband died of a vehicular mishap on his way home with a crib, supposedly meant for their unborn daughter, and her son’s death three years after when Emanuele’s hand held loose of a viper that bit him at the instant he was extracting its venom to prepare a serum. It must have been more than too much to bear especially that they were the primary reasons she’d live through the continental ordeal they had altogether started. Nevertheless, she moved on in their honor, devoting the rest of her life to protecting the environment of Kenya with undiminished fervor.

I dreamed of Africa’s overall impact is suggestive of a woman’s spirit against the toughest odds as empowered by her continuing engagement to understand the vast ‘wild’ enabling her further aspiration of heeding its call for harmony to suffuse over its beauty through interdependent efforts of love toward nature. Gallman’s character through Basinger occurs enlightening enough that it directs guide to selfless traits a family must hold in great value and the individualistic essence of responsible stewardship for environmental protection.