Lamerica

Lamerica

“L’America: A Film Review” by James Berardinelli

Lamerica, by Gianni Amelio, examines the deterioration of a country that is left to re-build after 50 years of totalitarian rule. Without state controls the country falls into ruin. Capitalists arrive to take advantage of the situation and with them come the con men.

This is where Amelio’s story begins. Gino and Fiori arrive in Albania with a scam to con Italy and other Western contributors out of aid that is meant to help the country. Their plot involves hiring a “straw man” or a front man to display to the government. Their search to find someone they can manipulate leads them to Spiro Tozai. He was a prisoner of the communist government who has been in jail so long that he has forgotten the last fifty years, much like Albania who still sees itself as a subservient child of their parent Italy.

Spiro, and Albania, are much more complicated than they seems. The old “Albanian” is actually an Italian deserter from Mussolini’s army. And, like a majority of Albanians, all he wants is to return to Sicily.

Gino is ordered to stay in Albania to fix the details of the scam and watch over their puppet chairman. He is arrogant and disdainful of the country. He ignores the signs of poverty that pervade the country and truly believes, as we are shown in the newsreel at the beginning of the film, that the Italians are coming to Albania to civilize the nation.

Gino loses track of Spiro, who has decided to go home, and he must chase after him. On this journey Gino begins to see the country as it really is: poverty stricken and hungry. As he loses his ties to Italy, his car, his money and eventually his passport, he realizes that the only difference between him and the Albanians that surround him is his luck to have been born in Italy.

One of the themes that struck me most while watching Lamerica was the Italians patronizing attitude toward Albania. Throughout the movie we are shown again and again how Italy perceives Albania as a child – the newsreel at the beginning, Fiori’s attitude toward his interpreter when he realizes that one of the applicants is related to him, the scene at the orphanage where Gino wants to teach Spiro not to soil his car (rubbing his nose in it like a puppy!); they tell the nuns that Spiro is an orphan, the message is that Italy has more responsibility for Albania than just another country offering economic aid.