116 minutes
Gianni Amelio’s “Lamerica” is a profoundly moving film that touches on questions of personal and national identity, on the shared desire of immigrants to better themselves somewhere, and on the devastating realization that their new land is painfully different from the earthly paradise they had always imagined.
Part of the Honoring The Twin Cities Program
+ Intro and post-screening analysis with Richard Peña, Emeritus Professor, Columbia University and Director Emeritus, New York Film Festival.
+ Q&A moderated by Richard Peña with Tommaso Cammarano, IFF’s Artistic Director
ABOUT THE FILM
“Lamerica” is a powerful exploration of identity, displacement, and the human cost of socio-political change. Set against the backdrop of post-communist Albania in the early 1990s, the film follows Fiore (Michele Placido), a small-time Italian entrepreneur, and his young partner Gino (Enrico Lo Verso), as they attempt to establish a business exploiting the chaos of a newly opened market. Their journey, however, becomes an unflinching encounter with poverty, corruption, and the lingering trauma of a society in transition. Amelio, also thanks to the faces and bodies of the hundreds of Albanian non professional actors, paints Albania with both documentary realism and lyrical poignancy.
Still widely unknown in the U.S., regardless of its premiere at the 1995 New York Film Festival, “Lamerica” won the European Film Award for Best Film. We are excited to give our audience an opportunity to finally discover this unforgettable film.
DIRECTOR’S BIO:
Gianni Amelio is a celebrated Italian film director whose cinema is marked by deep humanism, social engagement, and recurring themes of absence, family, and memory, shaped in part by the early loss of his father, who emigrated to Argentina soon after his birth. After studying philosophy in Messina and writing as a film critic, he moved to Rome in 1965, working as a camera operator and assistant director for figures such as Liliana Cavani and Vittorio De Seta, and directing documentaries and television dramas before breaking into cinema.
Amelio’s feature debut came in 1982 with “Colpire al cuore”. He gained international prominence with “Porte aperte” (1990), a powerful adaptation of Leonardo Sciascia’s story that earned a Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the 1991 Academy Awards, multiple David di Donatello and Nastro D’Argento awards, and wide acclaim.
His 1992 film “Il ladro di bambini” won the Grand Prix (Special Jury Prize) at Cannes, along with numerous national honors. “Lamerica” (1994) won the European Film Award for Best Film, the Golden Osella for Best Director at Venice, and the Goya for Best European Film. In 1998, “Così ridevano” took the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Later works such as “Le chiavi di casa” (2004), earning additional Nastri D’Argento, and films like “La stella che non c’è” (2006), “La tenerezza” (2017), “Hammamet” (2020) and “Il signore delle formiche” (2022; Audience Award winner at the 2023 Italian Film Festival of Minneapolis/St Paul ), “Campo di battaglia” (2024) continued his acclaimed career. Amelio also served as director of the Torino Film Festival from 2009 to 2012 and has received lifetime achievement awards recognizing his enduring impact on Italian and European cinema.
Relased 1994
Directed by Gianni Amelio