NAIROBI, Kenya — The Kenyan actor who strides across the beautiful, arid landscape as Owour the cook in the Oscar-winning German film "Nowhere in Africa" could have been a wealthy lawyer.
But in 1974, Sidede Onyulo's English teacher at Nairobi High School handed him a copy of "The Trials of Brother Jero" by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka. The teacher urged Sidede to take the lead role of a preacher more interested in getting rich than saving souls.
The line connecting Brother Jero and Owour tells the story of Sidede's struggle to live as an actor in Africa. Put simply, he gets little respect—and even less money.
"That's why it's been awkward for me, trained as a lawyer, known as having trained in law, to take up something which nobody basically believes is serious, while the other one is like gold mining," said the lanky, 6-foot Sidede.
"And that transition hasn't comfortably married with the situation we're living with," said Sidede, 48. "Acting cannot maintain me, leave alone my family, but it's just something that I believe in."
Sidede's friends were so concerned when he left the law that one sat him down in the empty auditorium of the National Theater and said: "What are you doing hanging around this baseless community?"
Not that drama and acting are not integral to African life. Rather, Sidede explained, "They were so woven into the fabric of the community that it's not something you go to pay to watch the show — you are PART of the show."
Sidede is better known in Germany, where the film opened two years ago to a very successful run, than in Kenya, where it has not yet been shown commercially.
The film that put Kenya on the movie map was Sidney Pollack's 1985 "Out of Africa." But it was about whites — Africans just provided the color. Most other American or European films about the continent followed that pattern.
"In terms of film in the ordinary man's understanding, generally people come here to use our location and our talent, on their terms, my dear, on their terms," Sidede said.
"Nowhere in Africa" is different.
Director Caroline Link adapted the screenplay from an autobiographical novel of the same name by Stephanie Zweig. Sidede's character, the African Owour, is a dignified man in a long, dark coat who mentors a Jewish family that flees Nazi Germany for Kenya. He becomes an anchor during the family's emotional struggle to accept their new life in a beautiful but harsh and alien setting.
"I've done quite a number of bits in films, but I always did two-dimensional characters. You know, the Maasai warrior, or the house help," Sidede said.
"This time I was a houseboy-cook, but I think I'm essential to that story. In fact, I think if Owour didn't come across, the film would have ended up feeling very different and would have been much less effective."
The actor is skeptical of the idea that the Best Foreign Language Oscar will boost Kenya's film industry. "It depends on what one means by industry," he said. "We're growing towards developing an industry, but I don't think we can really claim to have a Kenyan film industry."
Sidede could think of only five Kenyan-made films, most sponsored by organizations seeking to create awareness of social problems like AIDS or domestic violence. After giving up law clerking some 20 years ago, he has mostly worked in these docudramas, or as a bit player in American made-for-TV films like "Eyes of a Witness" (1991).
His wife, Helen Akinyi, helps support their two daughters with proceeds from a beauty salon in Nairobi.
The African films that have achieved international recognition generally come from West African directors with generous French subsidies. Locally, the popular African films are video soaps churned out by Nigerians and Ghanaians. They play in makeshift "film parlors," which charge the equivalent of 25 U.S. cents for admission.
Sidede doesn't have an agent and wonders why he should. Since "Nowhere" was wrapped three years ago, he has worked "about 15 film days," in part because he refuses to accept the low pay offered.
"If I, Sidede, who is supposed to be a renowned Kenyan actor, will take 5,000 bob ($65) a day, somebody totally unknown will get what?"
Now, he's working on developing scripts about Africans, he said — perhaps "something art-house" like "City of God," the story of a gang of boys in a Rio de Janeiro slum by Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles.
Sidede bought a secondhand video camera in Munich. He wants to create mock-ups of his film ideas, using unpaid actor friends, to attract investors.
Although he fears only a very few "are brave enough to try and do something because it looks insurmountable," he said he would not give up on making African films.
"We have our own stories to tell," said Sidede.