Tribal love

>> A German tourist dumps her boyfriend
for an African warrior in the beautiful
and disturbing true story The White Masai

AFRICAN AMOUR: The White Masai

by MATTHEW HAYS

Based on her own experiences, the book The White Masai recounts Swiss author Corinne Hofmann’s fateful trip to Kenya, where she bumped into a Masai warrior, fell in love and moved to his remote village to marry him. Obviously, the story begs for cinematic adaptation, and filmmaker Hermine Huntgeburth has risen to the challenge admirably.

Nina Hoss plays the central role, and what may astonish audiences most is the film’s initial set-up. Indeed, if it weren’t for the “based on a true story” tag, I’m not sure I would have believed it myself. A German tourist is in Kenya flanked by her bourgeois boyfriend, only to bump into a couple of Masai warriors. She finds one of them hot. Before you know it, she’s dumped whitey and is desperately seeking her Masai warrior. It’s a shockingly short courtship, one that makes the same process on an old episode of The Love Boat look positively deep, but hey, these Eurotrash tourists really know how to swing. Hoss hooks up with Jacky Ido (who plays the Masai), who makes her bend over and does the deed, in wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am style. It’s not terribly romantic, but despite all of this, Hoss heads to his remote village to be with him.

The White Masai then shows us how Hoss tries to adapt to the tribe’s lifestyle. Some of this process is easy, some not—in particular, she recoils in horror at a teen girl being circumcised. An Italian priest who lives nearby dismisses Hoss’s interest in the village as touristy, but she proves him wrong, staying for quite some time.

Despite this being set in Africa, The White Masai is still a film told from the white Euro perspective. How are the two extremely different attitudes—particularly towards gender roles—supposed to mesh? And what, precisely, is (dare I use the rather idiotic phrase) “reasonable accommodation” on this personal a level? The filmmakers do an admirable job of withholding judgment while showing us the extreme choice Hoss must ultimately face in this beautiful and disturbing feature.

The White Masai opens Friday, March 16

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