The White Masai (2005)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Absolutely brilliant

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The White Massai is a fairly good movie about a Swiss woman who falls in love with a Massai man. The movie is based on true events, and as a consequence the storyline is not very spectacular. On her vacation in Kenya Carola meets Lemalian, a Massai man, and she is immediately attracted to him. She decides to follow him and marry him. The movie shows the difficulties she encounters adapting to the simple life of Massai. Things go wrong when she tries to bring 21th century ways of doing in the community. She rebels against female circumcision and against the way the Massai deal with the inevitability of dying. Things really go wrong when she decides to open a shop. Buying and selling is not in the dictionary of Massai, and the shop goes bankrupt because of everybody buying on credit. By then their relationship is also bankrupt, and she decides to go home to Switzerland with her child.This movie is very good in showing the huge gap between the western and the Massai culture, a gap to wide for love to bridge. Although the movie convinces the viewer in the love between the two, it is obvious from the start that this relationship will not succeed.However, the movie shows only the woman's perspective, leaving the impression that the break-up is mainly the fault of her husband. For instance, it is clear to the viewer that at a certain point the woman cannot continue, but the movie does not even tries to explain why the man gets so "unreasonably" jealous. It would have been good to try to understand the man's behaviour from his cultural background. This is missed completely.Its a good movie to show to anyone who is about to encounter in an inter-cultural relationship.By the way, the movie is English spoken. But at a certain moment Carola gets so frustrated that she starts to scold in her native language, German: a strange, biting, staccato stream of sounds. Amazing that a language that sounds as ugly as this, could produce such great poets like Goethe and Schiller

I may be at a disadvantage because I have not read the book and perhaps there were other issues which were not played out in the movie that caused the Swiss woman to behave in the manner she did and ultimately lead to the destruction of the love through a combination of naivety and stupidity. Of course she was always going to be extremely challenged in embarking on such a risky and impetuous liaison with a Massai warrior and attempt to embrace the culture of her husband without putting her own values on the culture in which she found herself and attempting to apply those values. The relationship for me seemed to start to disintegrate when she attempted to become an independent woman in such a society and relegate her proud husband to almost a subservient role when she established the shop. Also this enterprise seemed to introduce alcohol into the equation without her even realizing that would come with consequences. I suppose I would like to hear the story as told by her husband to attempt to get some balance in this story. The sudden relationship problems and his suspicion of her taking a lover all seemed to be attributable to her steadfast determination to change the culture of the tribe and assert her female independence about which she was warned well before she entered into the relationship. Having said that I did enjoy the story for what it was and the insight into such an African tribal culture was very interesting but ultimately not surprised at the outcome. Perhaps she was fortunate that she was able to take her daughter back with her as it would seem to me that it could easily have turned out to be quite different. Whether that is going to better for the child in the long run is one of the unanswered questions to come out of this movie

I was curious to see this film seeing the split type of reviews it got on IMDb. It has been showing at our small town cinema for full two weeks. And, yes, there were still quite a number of viewers - mostly women. I believe the problem is that people get worked up on the main character and get to dislike her strongly, then reflecting this on the film as a whole. Which of course is not fair, but maybe understandable. So if you want to see a marvelous, well made, well photographed and even well written film with an intriguing plot - this will be it. If you want to agree with all moves of the main characters and seek harmony, happiness and want to relax - just stay away. My boys, for instance, hated 'Gegen die Wand' for the lack of happy ending and the pain the main characters live through. So does this mean that we Germans have an affinity to 'difficult' plots? (including our German-Turkish compatriots in 'Wand') Maybe. What makes the film less understandable - but very much more realistic - is that it is based on a true story. So why complain? The Carola character has her flaws and gets stuck between wanting to Europeanise the Massai life and adapting to their customs. Which in itself would render enough material for several films. The Massai accept her but are also stuck with their traditions - what else would you expect. But this film is not about how this dilemma can be solved - it is about Carola and Lemalian - and if you come to think of it, two very brave characters, no matter how they behave in detail. They exist(ed)!!! And the film gives you an opportunity to partake in their torment. Just take this as ONE possible outcome and ponder on the potential and possibilities such a setting can offer. Enjoy.

I saw the film and I just want to say,at first step ': Better read the book, I was nearly shocked how bad the film is.Sorry for this absolutely unlucky statement, but i hoped, i would see the film and could say, it would be just a little difference between the book and it.But the only thing i can say is, that all scenes,all dialogues,are not just a few little bit like the book.I only can say to people who want to watch this film: Better read the book for more information and more story. During the whole film the scenes jumped just into another,many times I had the problem to find out,at which scene the film plays,what just had happened,because the most important scenes looked to me extremely cut. For me it meant about 2 h of boring dialogues and I was tired watching it. Sorry ;-)