Nowhere in Africa, the drama about a family of German Jews who leave their homeland before the Second World War and settle on a farm in Kenya, won the Academy Award Sunday for best foreign-language film.

Presenter Salma Hayek, who was nominated for best actress for her portrayal of artist Frida Kahlo in Frida, accepted the award on behalf of German director Caroline Link, who was absent.

Link directed the film and adapted the screenplay from a novel by Stefanie Zweig. The story follows the Redlichs family as they realize that the war and the Holocaust will make it impossible for them to return to Germany.

Other Oscar nominees for best foreign-language film were El Crimen del Padre Amaro from Mexico, Hero from China, Zus & Zo from the Netherlands and The Man Without a Past from Finland.

Aki Kaurismaki, who directed The Man Without a Past, stirred some attention for the category when he announced before the ceremony that he wouldn't attend because of the war in Iraq.

``We are not living in the most glorious moments of the history of mankind,'' Kaurismaki wrote in a letter to Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences President Frank Pierson. ``Therefore, I nor anybody else from Sputnik Ltd. can participate in the Oscar gala event at the same time the government of the United States is preparing a crime against humanity for the purpose of shameless economic interests.''