Lamerica

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Lamerica ★★★ 1995

Two Italian hustlers, Fiore (Placido) and his younger partner Gino (Lo Verso), head for poverty-stricken Albania in 1991, the first year after the collapse of the Communist dictatorship. They intend to set up a phony corporation and scam money from government grants but they need an Albanian figurehead. The duo find simple-minded, elderly Spiro (Di Mazzarelli), who's spent most of his life in prison camps, and stash him in an orphanage for safe keeping. Only when Spiro gets away, Gino heads for the countryside to find him and discovers some secrets about Spiro's past and just how the wily Albanians have been surviving. Italian with subtitles. 116m/C VHS, DVD . IT Enrico Lo Verso, Michele Placido, Carmelo Di Mazzarelli, Piro Milkani; D: Gianni Amelio; W: Gianni Amelio, Andrea Porporati, Alessandro Sermoneta; C: Luca Bigazzi; M: Franco Piersanti.