L'america (from Ilya)

"Lamerica touches upon a couple of notable themes: Identity, migration, empathy, and cross-cultural communication. The film begins when Gino, an Italian con man arrives in Albania to take advantage of the lack restrictions after the fall of the communist government, in order to set up a fake business and collect money from the government. Though he is not the head of the operation, he is certainly most despicable out of the criminals. He is representative of Italy’s ugly colonial history. Like those before him, he goes to a foreign land, seeking to exploit the native population and justifying it through prejudices and stereotypes. However as he chases Spiro, the show-chairman of the fake company around Albania he undergoes a transformation. He is slowly stripped of his positions, his clothes, his car, and eventually his passport. As he wonders around the streets of Albania, figuring out how to get back to Italy, the audience is struck by the fact that he looks like very other Albanian there. There is nothing differentiating him from the population he came to exploit. This raises the question of identity. Is identity something that is inhere? Is it taught? One conclusion may be that identity is fluid and is governed by malleable forces such as governments. Thus the film begs the audience reconsider their identities in relation to their nation or nation-state. The theme of identity is exercised by the physical and metaphysical migration or diaspora. Gino is eventually forced to endure the gruesome journey that many Albanians partake in everyday in order to reach Italy. His transformation into a migrant himself and Spiro’s(michele)subsequent migration, to what he believes to be New York, also echo the journies of their ancestors to Ellis island. Like the Albanian migrants, their ancestors journeyed to land in search of opportunity and work. This further questions the nation as a concrete identifier in people. Lastly, the theme of cross-cultural communication is repeatedly underscored throughout the film. Namely, through the presence of television. A young Albanian girl imitates a dancer she saw on television, a group of workers are sat down to watch Italian day-time television. What they see on television influences their perception of Italy as prosperous for all. This paired with Gino’s transformation into one of these immigrants may also be read as a statement on class. It seems as if class is the only identifier that held up throughout the film. Specifically, one’s role as a lower class; which seems to be that of exploitation and hardship."