Lamerica
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Carmelo Di Mazzarelli, Elida Janushi, Enrico Lo Verso, Michele Placido, Piro MilkaniDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-05-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: New Yorker Video
Movie Reviews of Lamerica
Movie Review: A Tale of Hope and Freedom Amidst Poverty & Swindlers
Summary: 5 Stars
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)
Summary of Lamerica
Upstaging the neorealist masterworks of Rossellini and Bertolucci, Gianni Amelio?s Lamerica triumphs. A visually arresting tale of moral conflict and the journey that leads to atonement, Lamerica has been hailed by critics everywhere as one of the best films of this past decade.After nearly half a century of communist rule, a poverty stricken Albania falls subject to the invasion of two exploitive capitalists looking to prosper within the changing economy. As Albania?s people try desperately to flee destitution, Gino (Enrico Lo Verso) and Fiore arrive from Italy with plans to use a makeshift manufacturing plant to front their next scam. Forced to name an Albanian citizen as their company?s acting "chairman," Gino and Fiore turn to Spiro?a prisoner of war for over fifty years, Spiro emerges as the perfect pawn. However, when Spiro suddenly disappears, Gino finds himself on a journey that will ultimately reshape the integrity of his soul. Beautifully photographed in Cinemascope, Lamerica has garnered director Gianni Amelio (Stolen Children and Open Doors) with a record third consecutive Felix Award for Best European Film.
Albania, 1991. After weathering a pre-World War II bout of Italian fascism and decades of communism (sketched out with newsreel footage in the film's opening moments), Albania has thrown off the shackles of totalitarianism and reveals to the world an economically devastated country...just ripe for the picking. As hordes of refugees stream out of Albania to Italy, a pair of Italian con men arrive with promises of industry and jobs. They select an addled former political prisoner (Carmelo di Mazzarelli) to front the company as the Albanian "chairman," and get ready to siphon off government development money and split--until their front suddenly wanders off and junior partner Gino (Enrico Lo Verso) sets off to find him. Systematically fleeced of his valuables and his identity by the very people he was out to bilk, the brash, flashy Italian is soon just another refugee struggling to sneak back past the borders of his own home. Shot entirely in Albania with a largely nonprofessional cast by Gianni Amelio (Stolen Children, also starring Lo Verso), a documentary immediacy fills the film with a harsh beauty, and it serves as a shocking revelation of a country so long cut off from the rest of the world. Amelio resists opportunities for sentimentalizing the desperate poor in his neorealist odyssey, but suggests hope in the periodic acts of kindness they bestow upon Gino. Though he is hardly a likable character, the haunted look in Gino's eyes by the end of his journey suggests a hard education that's likely to remain with him. And with us. --Sean Axmaker
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