Plot
After the fall of communism in Albania, Italian scam artists Gino and Fiore make their way to Albania in order to open a shell corporation and pocket state contributions. After discovering that the Albanian figurehead for the corporation is a relative of their go-between, they replace her with Spiro Tozai, an old man taken from a hospice. It is later discovered that Tozai is in reality Michele Talarico, a former Italian colonist who has been in hiding since the Second World War. In his senile state, he is convinced that he is still a 20-year-old recruit and longs to see his son, whom he still thinks is a child.
Talarico wanders off, followed by Gino, who is eventually arrested in Tirana after the shell corporation is exposed. Gino is released, but with his passport confiscated, forcing him to board a ship bound for Italy overflowing with Albanian refugees. He finds Talarico there who, in a state of dementia, believes the ship is heading to America.
Reception
Lamerica has an approval rating of 91% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 8/10. [3]
TV Guide gives the film four stars, finding it "A boldly chilling portrait of post-Communist Europe in moral eclipse, directed with passion and singular grace by Italian Gianni Amelio...". [4] Janet Maslin, writing for The New York Times , finds that "The film's synthesis of fact and fiction is gracefully achieved," and expressed hope that after the screening of Lamerica at the 1995 New York Film Festival, Amelio would "emerge ... much more widely known." [5]
The film was heavily criticised by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare for what he perceived as the whitewashing of Italian colonialism, and accused the film of promoting the idea that Albanians dreamed of living under Italian domination. [6]
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