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Lamerica [VHS]

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After Communism is overthrown in the 1990s Albania falls into a state of destitution and many of her citizens are in a state of despair. The majority are poor and many attempt to flee across the sea to Italy. Television programs reveal a wealthy economy there. The hope for a better life spurs many to risk their own when crossing the borders and challenging the odds of gettiing caught. The black and white film footage in the beginning shows a historical background of how Albania survived World War II by replacing fascism with communism which held great promise for a better life that never materialized. The surreal circumstances of the past haunts this mountainous country as it mirrors the problems which face the population in the 1990s.

The demise of communism holds no better future for the majority of Albanians. One small Albanian restaurant owner harkens back to the communist past when things were better, food was plentiful, there were not shortages. It is under these circumstances that Fiore, an Italian businessman, and Gino his partner arrive in Albania to exploit the people and set up a phony factory allegedly to help the Albanian economy. They meet a few corrupt Albanian officials whom they bribe to expedite the complex paperwork. They also visit a concentration camp to find an unlikely Albanian candidate to become the "chairman" of their business - who will likely become the fall guy when the business fails ...

Gino played by Enrico Lo Verso is a young ambitious Italian business partner to Fiore. Gino takes care of Spiro, the Albanian man selected as chairman. Spiro signs a few legal papers top start things rolling but is needed later for more paperwork when the transactions are finalized. He is dressed in a fine suit and accompanied by Gino on a road-trip to an orphanage run by Catholic nuns from the order of Mother Theresa. He is placed there for safe-keeping until needed again to sign legal forms. Spiro is a sorrowful character. He had been a twenty year old Italian who was conscripted to fight for Albania during World War II, yet all his internal paperwork reveals him to be an Albanian citizen. However, his mind is lost in the past even though he functions with great survival instincts and has a good heart. He wants to return to his village in Sicily to see Rose his wife and their three or four year old son. Spiro had escaped his confinement in the orphanage and had returned to a vagabond life, dressing in his old clothes, trying to find his way back home. The adventure of finding Spiro becomes a nightmare for Gino. In poverty-stricken Albania, Gino parked his SUV in order to relieve his bladder only to discover the vehicle is stripped of its tires and every workable part is removed. Both he and Spiro are forced to take local bus transportation back to Tirana. Along the way, they stop at a run-down hotel where Gino gets a phone call that devastates him. All the delays have created difficulties and Fiore has fired both the chairman and Gino.

Next, the Albanian authorities are investigating these Italian business profiteers and their motives. Gino is arrested and his passport confiscated. The remainder of the film deals with how Gino reclaims his life after such a fall from a rather charmed life. He narrowly escapes from jail and joins the throngs of Albanians who manage to escape their homeland seeking freedom abroad. Gino's views about life and humanity change forever ... This is a very engaging film which opens the eyes of the viewer to new perspectives. Erika Borsos (pepper flower)

This award winning 1994 Italian film is sometimes hard to watch. The landscape is Albania in the early 90s, a country that had been first invaded by Mussolini and then kept subjugated by totalitarian rule until the recent breakup of communism. This leaves it open for two Italian racketeers to try to set up a bogus shoe factory. Problem is they need an Albanian to be chairman. And so they find an old man who they can call "chairman" and will sign all the proper papers.

Things get a little out of hand, when the old man, played by Carmelo DiMazzarelli, runs away. The younger racketeer, Enrico Lo Verson, goes out to look for him. What follows is a deeply moving drama set against the backdrop of the abject poverty in Albania. Here, almost everyone is a refugee, attempting to cross the Adriatic in a quest for a better life in Italy, which symbolically becomes "Lamerica", symbol of hope and freedom.

At the beginning of the film the young man is brash and arrogant. He has money and nice clothes and is quite willing to become part of the scheme. The old man has been a prisoner for 50 years and doesn't realize the passing of time, still thinking he is only 20. As the story develops, we find out he is not Albanian at all, but a WW2 deserter who yearns to return to Sicily to his wife and newborn son. The young man's goal, however, is to keep him in Albania.

But things happen. The young man's car gets stolen and he soon learns how little his money means in the countryside of Albania. For example, after walking for miles, they come to a café. The shopkeeper is clear. "Sorry, no water today. Today holiday. Maybe tomorrow." There isn't any food either. Just a television screen where dozens of men sit like zombies watching Italian TV.

The journey is long, and events worsen, but the relationship between the two men grows. It's all very subtle as we watch the old man gain in strength and wisdom and the young man gradually change his character. The acting is excellent, so excellent that I forgot they were actors. There's little action but yet every line had layers of meaning.

The poverty is disturbing. How could it ever have gotten this bad? But there's determination in every Albanian to strive for a better life. They do the best they can. And it sure opened my eyes. This is an important film. I'm glad I saw it. But I was left with a lingering sadness when it was over in spite of the fact that the ending was one of hope. This isn't a film for everyone. But those who want to be moved and are not afraid of the subject, I definitely recommend this film.

A very nice movie portraying what life was like in Albania following the fall of communism. This movie is well done and filmed entirely in Albania. The documentary style filming of the movie gives you a real upclose look at the lives of ordianry Albanian citizens struggling to make ends meet at a time of a collapsed economy. Though this film is in Italian language, all of the characters except the two leading characters are Albanian.
The characters for the most part comprise of a non-professional cast to give the viewer a look at the harsh reality of post-communist life. The movie is interesting and fascinating to watch because you get to see a little of what Albania looks like. It is important to remember that Albania was Europe's most backward communist society. For four decades this Balkan country was isolated from the rest of the world. Even now Albania is Europe's and one of the world's least known countries. This film is a treat in that it introduces a litte of what Albania was like and still is, even if it is harsh and haunting. Another highlight of the film is that in many scenes it is possible to hear the Albanian language being spoken. Though the Italian dialogue is all subtitled, the Albanian dialogue is not. But, never the less it is interesting to hear the Albanian dialogue spoken by ordinary Albanian citizens.
This film is moving and touches you at the end when you realize why this film is titled Lamerica. A ship with hundreds of people seeking a better life of opportunity in a land that is not their own. This is something that occurs throughout the globe everyday. Lamerica is a film for everybody to learn from and appreciate for what they have.

Gianni Amelio's touching and thought-provoking story of 2 superficial and greedy Italian business men who go to under-developed Albania to set up a business scam. When the deal goes sour the younger business man, with some bad luck, loses his jeep, money, and identity and lives as an Albanian while trying to flee the country. The experience humanizes the Albanians, as he sees that these "savages" are not much different then him, with dreams of love and freedom. Perhaps the best film I have ever seen, with a powerful ending which will make you cry and understand why our fathers, grandfathers, etc.. came to Lamerica

The plot of this film is an Italian young man who finds himself stranded in Albania, just after the end of Communist rule. The Italian influence in Albania is emphasized, both from before the Second World War and with the Albanian immigration at the time of this film. Also conspicuous in this work is the prevalent poverty in Albania, and the relics of the Communist regime led by the late Enver Hoxha. Perhaps more than anything else, this film is a stark, if necessarily depressing, indictment of the Hoxha regime, a brutally xenophobic and ideologically hidebound government that left the country economically broken and its citizens the poorest in Europe. Secondarily, the Italian, but not most of the Albanian, is subtitled, and the filming was done in Albania, at the correct locations.

L'america is a great movie that gives a lot of emotions, especially to the albanian people for the changes that happened during that period.You had to be there to really understand what was going on.
Albania is a small country in the Balkan Peninsula with a bitter history through centuries.It has been invaded many times starting with the romans,turks,italians and germans.But all that didn't stop albanians to save their culture,traditions and the language which is the oldest of the Indo-Europian languages. Albanians are very good people,very generous and brave.
I am talking a little to much away from the movie, but as an albanian I feel the responsability to let whoever reads this review know: Albania is a small country with a great heart and time has steped on Her with no mercy.
FALEMINDERIT-in albanian means (THANK YOU) in english

"Lamerica" was directed by Gianni Amelio. He has more recent films which are not yet on DVD, such as "The Keys to the House" and "Stolen Children". His style has been compared to neo-realism, but he is very attentive and creative as he films, so he goes well outside the bounds of any conventional expectations. He avoids technical displays and edits including only elements that speed you on in the story.

Lamerica is about the inescapable inherent rules of humanity, in which we are connected to each other by iron bonds of compassion.

The story is about a journey into the interior and out again of Albania at a time of chaos, A young Italian, in training to be a crooked business man, finds himself deeper and deeper in trouble in a world he can't understand and deal with. He is seeking a retarded man who was selected to be the Albanian front man for their scam. As he goes forward he resists all human impulses of connectedness and compassion..and half the suspense is to see if he finally understands the hell he has made for himself and will then attain some measure of redemption. The other main character, the would-be front man, acted by a retired fisherman, whom the director met by chance, who gives an extraordinary performance, well beyond anything Tom Hanks did to get one of his Oscars.

In reality the director is addressing us, the prosperous developed world. It also shows that political insanity breeds unnecessary extreme poverty.

This film is made of many small details, which paint a picture of the human ability to survive, even to the point of breaking most contact with reality. There is a fantastic dance scene with a little girl, for example, imitating what she has seen on Italian TV.. And it warns us, if an Albanian translator is not going to go with you to the Ministry, you better turn around and run for your life. One of the last images is a trick performed by a beggar boy who actually has two normal legs..then you think back to the beginning and the translator, who splits because he knows something or worse has turned you in, and you realize these are no fools.

The tragedys of poverty runs through this film which is set against a compelling background of documentary realism.There is an unexpected unforgetable dance improvisation by a young girl. It is also strewn with poignant incidental humour. Meaningfull enjoyable this is a must see.

Updating the Italian neo-realist mode of cinema, director Gianni Amelio's 1994 film, set in Albania, tells the tale of a young Italian con man and his older colleague--the smarter and more experienced of the two--who come to Albania just after the fall of communism in an attempt to basically steal money from the Albanian government with promises of jobs to the incredibly impoverished nation.

To prove they are legit, they need to present to the representatives of the Albanian government a front man who is Albanian, thus who will faithfully represent the interests of his native country. They find him in the person of Spiro Tozai, an older man currently living in the equivalent of a prison camp which, in 1991--the year of the film's setting--apparently still exists, housing almost all elderly men who were formerly, ostensibly, enemies of the state.

The older of the con men, saying he has related business to attend to back in Italy, departs before things really get underway, leaving his younger less experienced partner to handle the presentation of the older man to the Albanian government.

Things do not go as planned.

The older man runs away and the younger Italian has to go out after him. Initially coming to steal from a neighboring country, the young Italian finds himself being stolen from--his car's tires, and his identity, thanks to the government. Soon he's reduced to the same status as his former dupe, the older man. But is the older man who we think he is? Or is he somebody else?

This is a very clever re-working of neo-realist themes and style, updated to post-Communist Albania. One of the more interesting highlights of the film is to see Albanian nuns dressed in the exact same style as the most famous Albanian nun of all, Mother Teresa, administering to the sick and injured.

This is a full two hour film and does take some patience to sit through. But at the same time, it is a film that reveals much with each passing minute. The older man, at first mute, finally begins to speak and we realize he is probably not who we think he is. The younger Italian keeps losing him, then finding him again, and each time this happens, he (the Italian) is in worse trouble than before, and the older man is there to help him, the exact opposite of the initial situation.

This is really a film about innocence and corruption, and how innocence can be reborn in a corrupt man when his own corruption is no match for that of the corruption around him. At the same time, it is a film about expectations, about the "grass is always greener"...The Albanians flee their native country to go to Italy where they are sure life is much better. At the same time, Italians leave their own native country to go to America for the exact same reason. The title of the film is an ironic homage to the place where things will be better, but implicit in the title as well is the subtext of the place where things are just as corrupt as what's being practiced by the two Italians who come to Albania to fleece it of some of its money.

It would not be surprising to discover that the director, Amelio, is a leftist; this is certainly the political leaning that comes across in watching this film. But it's not so much the political leanings that are important as it is the humanity of the main characters, the young Italian and the older man. Even after almost getting suffocated by Albanian kids, the older man still retains his dignity and kindness--something most people would find it hard to do. On the other hand, the younger man changes his perspective--from a slick, greedy con man to someone totally lost in a foreign culture whom hope has abandoned.

A thought-provoking film, Lamerica deserves to be seen for its rich characterizations and its masterful recreation of the neo-realist style.

In some ways this resembles a more sophisticated, complex, political
re-telling of Amelio's great modern neo-realist classic 'Stolen Children'.

In this case two Italians go to just post communist Albania to try and
make a killing setting up an exploitative factory, taking advantage of
the desperately poor local workers. They hire a half- crazed old man to
be the necessary local figurehead. (The local is amazingly played by a
non- actor.)

Then, of course, everything in their plan goes wrong.

Tremendously moving, with only brief whiffs of manipulation or easy
emotion. A portrait of colonialism and capitalism crashing into
communist bureaucracy, and leaving behind shattered souls.