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The White Masai is an account of a Swiss woman's love affair with a Samburu warrior she meets in Kenya. In real life, Corinne Hofmann spent four years in the company of the Masai before returning to Europe, where her book about these experiences has been translated into 16 langages and has sold 4 million copies.
On the page and on the screen, The White Masai is a story of love at first sight and a story of overwhelming culture clash. You can see it as the story of a brave, if impetuous, woman who follows her heart. You could also see it as an utterly repellent tale about a narcissist who thinks nothing of taking what she wants at everybody else's expense.
(A review of the book called it a story of "colonial plunder." The movie conveys the same message.)
Nina Hoss stars in The White Masai as Carola, a young woman who has been on holiday in Kenya with her boyfriend. Her whole life changes in an instant when she glimpses a handsome Samburu warrior; his name is Lemalian (Jacky Ido), and he and Carola cross paths a few times before the day is over.
Carola determines to find Lemalian and make some sort of life with him. Over everyone's objections, that's just what she does -- travels hours into the countryside to find the guy, waits for him in some backwater until he turns up, agrees to live with him, sells her shop in Switzerland, marries and makes a life with Lemalian in the bush, opens a small shop there to improve the diet of the locals, has a child, acts bewildered at the hurt, anger, jealousy and cultural backlash her behaviour has prompted, and then buggers off back to Europe.
Golly. What a love story.
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Under Carola's careful and fabulously selfish tutelage, Lemalian learns to make love rather than just have sex, learns what money can buy, learns that women are supposed to be equals and learns what it is to be henpecked. Henpecked is not the exact expression we'd use, but never mind.
The film is pretty, predictable and far too long, what with Carola's pluck and courage over the terrible food, her pluck and courage over the primitive living conditions and customs, her pluck and courage in the face of various medical emergencies.
She is totally ignorant of the culture into which she has stumbled and that never changes. Instead, her goal is to change everything around her. Carola actually seems surprised when it all goes wrong. Idiot. Why would anyone care?
(This film is rated 18-A)