[ALBSA-Info] Lamerica (fwd)

[Eriola Kruja]

since it was requested here it is. :) This e-mail was actually sent to
another list where there was a fierce discussion about the producer, Giani
Amelio. Some thought he is a scumbag and portrayed Albania contrary to
what it is.. and others thought the movie hurt to watch because it is so
accurate.
eriola.

ps. I'm working on putting up a Forum on our web-page (which needs some
major updating) but it will look very neat soon! :)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 01:17:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: Eriola Kruja <kruja at fas.harvard.edu>
Subject: Lamerica

it so happened that I watched this movie just a couple of days before the
debate on "lamerica" started. I wasn't aware of the controversy it had
created in Albania when I watched it. Perhaps this one of the reasons I
did not take the movie to be a direct offense on Albanians. Actually, i
thought the movie to be a sort of parallel between the current situation
in Albania (early 90s) and Italy after WWII. Italy in the early 90s was to
albanians what America was italians after WWII.

What amazed me even more was the ability of the director to penetrate so
deeply into our thoughts and wishes... which sometimes was painful to
watch. The scene with the old man being pushed into a bunker was a bit
exaggerated... but was it really far fetched? I don't think so... nowdays
in Albania even children can be that cruel. There were so many litte
things about albanians that the director was albe to capture: the scene in
the bus where the young albanian men try Gino's sun-glasses one by one...
the little girl dancing to a Michael Jackson song etc. You could also
sense that as the movie went on the director/Gino became more sympathetic
to the albanians.. remember the scene where an albanian gives Gino "buke e
djathe" when he saw Gino was hungry? Or the scene where the old woman
gives Gino a pair of shoes in the hospital? This clearly portrays us as
goodhearted people, who take away from themselves to help others in need.

The movie certainly was unnerving and painful to watch. It hurt to watch
because a lot of things in the movie were so true. These are things one
would always try to masquerade in front of the world. To see them
exposed like that can be easily mistaken as a personal attack.. but deep
down the movie remains a documentary about the pains of a nation trying to
escape poverty.

eriola.

ps. take a box of tissues if you go to see this movie.