Lamerica

Amelio’s latest film is an impressive drama in the best tradition of Italian Neo-Realism. It focuses on the young Italian businessman Gino. He is in Albania to arrange a dubious transaction for his boss Fiore. Officially they are planning to invest in modernising an Albanian company, but this is no more than a cover to obtain grants. To achieve their plans, they need an Albanian who can operate as puppet and they find a man in a half-functioning concentration camp. His lengthy stay in the camp has turned Spiro Tozaj into a wreck and he has lost all contact with reality. The businessmen’s ruse fails. Gino ends up with Siro roaming a totally shattered and chaotic Albania. She get swallowed up in the stream of desperate immigrants trying to reach the promised land of Italy.