Lamerica

It was with great interest that I watched the film Lamerica. I had no idea that there were tensions between Albania and Italy, and it struck me as especially poignant since I’ve traveled to Italy and learned a little bit of its history. Since most of the reading focuses on the Balkans, Kosovo and Serbia, I learned a lot more in this film and the information provided in the review by James Berardinelli.

This lens in the film focuses on the period after the agreement was signed between Italy and Albania ‘in the name of Fascism”, we are told early on. The film is set in 1991 Albania, where we are shown how hard life has been and is in Albania, and many people emigrate from Albania to Italy in hopes of having a better life. Ironically, Italians do not want Albanians immigrating to their country, and have stiff laws that say Albanians cannot even leave their country. …”why would people need to leave?’, one character says to the ‘investors’ at one point in the film. Indeed, why would they stay? Paisa (my notes on the film say “Paisa”- I thought that was his name until I read the review…Gino it is) is told time and again, ‘maybe there will be water tomorrow’ on his journey with the homeless man turned chairman, and there is never any food in the restaurants. Their entire existence sounds miserable. I learned that America isn’t the only land of opportunity in this film.

I couldn’t immediately tell if the homeless man, Talarico, was insane or deaf, but was surprised to learn that he was also Italian. I believe Gino cannot fathom Talarico being an Italian either, because then he will have to confront the fact that this all to easily could become his fate. I also found it interesting that Spiro/Talarico had to hide his identity in Albania or risk execution as a deserter, but now with Gino, he is a revered Italian.

I noticed that when Gino almost missed his lorry, the other Albanian passengers immediately helped him onto the truck, but he regards them as beneath him. He says that he doesn’t need anyone’s help at the height of his journey, almost completely stripped of all his possessions, still not broken, but realizes very soon this is the sentiment of the rich and powerful. This is something that cannot be uttered by the Albanians, because they are without either money or power.

I was struck by the image of man and certain members of mankind as ignorable when a passenger dies on the trip. Instead of covering his body, they leave him on the truck, not saying anything, as though he were just another piece of freight to be delivered. Perhaps they all knew that risk.

The class struggle and ethnic tensions soon become a point of role reversal when Gino finds himself without a passport and on a ship to ‘America’ – he is powerless and at the mercy of someone else. He is now one of them, whether he likes it or not, on the ship to ‘America’, reduced to immigrating like the hated Albanians.