A Review of "Lamerica"

“Lamerica” is set in the immediate post communist era in Albania. The protagonist in the movie is a character named Gino. He is an Italian who has come to Albania with an associate to set up a factory. Unfortunately this associate is running a scam and Gino finds himself stranded in Albania with little money. He is then forced to try and find his way back to Italy on his own. Complicating this task is an old man named Spiro who was plucked from an Albanian prison by Gino and his associate. This was done primarily because he had no family and appeared to be an easily controllable chairman for the bogus factory. (The Albanian government required a citizen to run the company if it was to receive government financial support) Gino finds his fate in Albania intertwined with Spiro.

I was struck by the sense of self hate and loathing the people of Albania seemed to have. This was illustrated in a scene where Gino converses with a young man he meets on a crowded lorry transporting people to the Adriatic coast. This man wants to go to Italy, marry an Italian girl and have lots of children. He then adds that they will only speak Italian at home and maybe his children will forget he is Albanian. It was as if the spirit of the people had been robbed by decades of oppression. There was no drive or desire to rebuild Albania. Everyone just wanted to go to Italy, which was held out as a panacea for all their ills.

In the beginning of the film Gino treats the Albanians he encounters with open contempt. He views them as inferior and annoying. As Gino’s fortunes dim he finds himself increasingly in the same boat as the Albanians attempting to flee their country. In fact on several occasions he is mistaken for an Albanian. Gino slowly realizes the incredible hardship facing the people he is traveling with and gradually begins to understand their desperation.

I was also intrigued by the parallels to the large immigration of Italians who left for the Western Hemisphere in the early twentieth century. They were seeking an escape to a place where they could find a better life just as the Albanians were doing by going to Italy. Bridging the gap between these two eras was the character Spiro who turns out to be Italian. He came to Albania as an Italian soldier under the fascist dictator Mussolini who invaded and annexed Albania in 1939. Spiro soon deserted, but was caught and imprisoned. His confinement continued under the communists for fifty years. However, Spiro did not count those years. He thought he was twenty years old and still in Italy. By the end of the movie Spiro and Gino finally reach port and board a ship for Italy. Spiro is convinced they going to America.

A good review of the film can be found at the following link:

http://www.filmreference.com/Films-A-An/L-America.html