Out of Africa (film) - Plot

Plot

The story begins in 1913 in Denmark, when Karen Dinesen (a wealthy but unmarried woman) asks her friend Baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer) to enter into a marriage of convenience with her. Although Bror is a member of the aristocracy he is no longer financially secure, therefore agrees to the marriage and the two of them plan to move to Africa to begin a dairy farm.

Upon moving to British East Africa, Karen marries Bror in a brief ceremony, thus becoming Baroness Blixen. She meets and befriends various other colonial residents of the country, most of whom are British. She also meets Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), a local big-game hunter with whom she develops a close friendship. However, things turn out differently for her than anticipated, since Bror has used her money to purchase a coffee plantation rather than a dairy farm. He also shows little inclination to put any real work into it, preferring instead to become a game hunter. Although theirs was a marriage of convenience, Karen does eventually develop feelings for Bror, but is distressed when she learns of his extramarital affairs. To make matters worse, Karen contracts syphilis from her philandering husband (at the time a very dangerous disease) and is forced to return to Denmark for a long and difficult period of treatment using the then-new medicine Salvarsan. Bror agrees to look after the plantation in her absence.

After she has recovered and returns to Africa, the First World War is drawing to an end. However, it becomes clear that her marriage to the womanizing Bror has not changed and she eventually asks him to move out of their house. Her friendship with Denys then develops further and the two eventually become lovers. However, despite many unsuccessful attempts to turn their affair into a lasting relationship, she realizes that Denys is as impossible to own or tame as Africa itself. Denys prefers the simple "African customs" of the free, nomadic life of the Maasai tribe on the open landscape, rather than the European customs of luxury, ownership, and titles. Although he moves into Karen's house, he criticizes her desire to "own" things; even people, refuses to commit to marriage or give up his free lifestyle and tells her that he will not love her more just because of a piece of paper. Karen grudgingly accepts the situation. No longer able to have children of her own due to the effects of the syphilis, she decides to open a school to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and also some European customs to the African tribal children of the area. However, her coffee plantation runs into financial difficulties and she is forced to rely on bank loans to make ends meet. Although it has taken years to cultivate, the plantation finally yields a good harvest, but a devastating fire breaks out on the plantation and the crop and all of the factory equipment are destroyed.

Now broke, and with her relationship with Denys over, Karen prepares to leave Africa to return home to Denmark, just as British East Africa is becoming Kenya Colony. She arranges to sell everything that she owns and empties the house of all her luxurious items for a rummage sale. In the now empty house, Denys visits her that night and the two of them have one last dance. He promises to return in a few days, to fly her to Mombasa in his biplane to begin her journey home. However, Denys never returns and Karen is told that his plane has crashed and he has been killed. Her loss now complete, Karen attends his funeral in the Ngong Hills. With Denys gone, Karen's head servant, Farah, takes her to the station, for the train to Mombasa.

Karen later became an author and a storyteller, writing about her experiences and letters in Africa, though she never returned there.