Search - A Far Off Place on DVD

Gloria B. (glowbird) from SPOKANE, WA
Reviewed on 10/30/2018...

This movie was based on a book, and is a "sequel to the bestseller by Laurens Van der Post, 'A Story Like The Wind'". What I like are the scenes of Africa and the Bushmen, and the conservationist, anti-poacher message--ivory hunters in particular. I'd forgotten this was a Disney film, which explains the sidestepping of the political climate of the novel, and centering the story around ivory poaching and adding American the sensibilities of greed, corruption, betrayal. A young Reese Witherspoon plays Nonnie, a young girl raised in Africa. The young Bushman, Xhabbo, is her friend/brother, who guides her and the visiting city boy through bush and desert. Through the character of Xhabbo the spiritual tenet that the people and the land are one is central. I am glad I watched this again.

2 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.

Story of Courage, Hope and Love

Gary Selikow | Great Kush | 01/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A Far Off Place is the sequel to the bestseller by Laurens Van der Post, 'A Story Like The Wind'. Hunters Drift is a farm in Matabeleland (today part of Zimbabwe) It is the home of Pierre Paul Joubert known affectionately by all who live there as 'Ouwa', where European, Matabele and Bushmen live in harmony with each other , and with the great flora and fauna of Africa.
This is before the forces of destruction and death, Marxist terrorists, massacre the whole population of Hunter's Drift , as they carve a path of blood through Southern Africa.
The only survivors are Ouwa's teenage son, Francois, Nonnie, the young daughter of a colonial governor and his Portuguese wife, both murdered by the terrorists and Francois' beloved hunting dog, Hintza. They are joined by a young Bushman, Xhabbo, and his wife, Nuin Tarra. The four young people and brave dog , must pass through bush and desert , to safety , while pursued by the cold-blooded killers.'A Far Off Place' is a heartwarming story of love hope and courage, and of survival against overwhelming odds. It is about the fine balance between all living creatures.
Not least it highlights the death and suffering caused so many times by those forces of evil that hide behind the slogans of revolution and 'Liberation'."

White boy and girl, dog, and Bushman couple flee death.

Lawrence D. Walker | Salt Lake City | 05/02/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This book begins where A Story Like the Wind ends. The home deep in Africa, where young Francois Joubert had grown to near manhood, was overrun by a well equipped army of black Africans led by a Maoist Chinese officer with Africans and two Europeans as subalterns. The Maoist officer ordered that everyone be killed at Hunter's Drift, where Francois had grown up, and at nearby Silverton Hill, where a retired British Naval officer, along with his half Portuguese daughter, known to Francois as Nonnie, were having a home built by South African coloureds. With impeccable logic, the Chinese officer wanted no survivors, because 1)Hunter's Drift was to becme a staging point for an assault on a mining city, requiring secrecy, and 2)a survivor could tell the tale of what had been done. Francois was a special target. But Francois and Nonnie were not at the scene when the attack wiped out the settlements. They had been called from the immediate area by a Bushaman whom Francois had earlier freed from a steel animal trap. The Bushman, Xhobba, had now returned with his wife, Nuin-Tara, and the four, and Francois' hunting dog, Hintza, son of great hunting dogs, had now to set off upon a flight across Africa to the sea, a trip which would take more than a year, during which they bonded deeply and were beset by enemies and eventually by disease. When the five reached the sea, there is a celebratory, triumphalist, ending to the book, two such events, in fact, that seem out of place in light of the slow, patient, painful crossing. (Survival would have been celebration enough.) But between these celebrations the words of Mopani, the great hunter turned conservationist, bring to us the spiritual philosophy of Laurens van der Post, most clearly summarized in a short prayer once uttered by Mopani, "Our Father, which art in Heaven, Thy will be done. Our Mother, which art in earth, thy love be fulfilled, and love will be made one"(307). An underlying theme of the book is that the inner and outer worlds are united: "There is a profound interdependence of world without and world within, and experience in either one of them is also valid in the other. Whenever one succeeds in breaking the code wherein their meaning is transmitted from one dimension to the other, this validity is so marked that one wonders whether there are really two different dimensions and not just two aspects of one and the same whole. The visible world being merely the spirit seen from without; the spirit, just the world without seen from within"(153). What the travelers have seen and endured affects them, and what they have done and will do affects the world around them, on and on through time."

A Gem In All Respects

Frank L. Winn | Colorado Springs, CO United States | 06/09/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Mikael Salomon's "A Far Off Place" is a marvelous example of how skilled direction and production can turn a good story into a great film. Performances in the major roles are all excellent, and Ethan Embry's portrayal of the disgruntled, fish-out-of-water city boy forced into the wilds of Africa walks a delicate line (between authentic teenage muddle-headedness and just plain obnoxiousness) beautifully. Critics may claim the film is a little two-dimensional, and in fairness, they are right. But by not trying to make the film too grand through obvious artifice, the good performances and great scenery let this film become memorable in a simple, direct way that's very much in harmony with the essence of the story: we don't always get to choose our circumstances, and how we react in those times may literally become a matter of life and death.Two other minor themes help make this a favorite: the Reese Witherspoon character is a great role model for any young girl - sensitive and feminine without being a wimpy or dependent ingrate; and a rare and even-handed portrayal of the firearm as a tool - no better or worse than the purpose to which it is put by a human master."