in his 1994 lamerica gianni amelio raise traditional linear italian film make to new height use the method of neorealism to carry his audience along on a dreamlike and ironic mythologizing journey whose mood and method be all his own . this very powerful film and which be as fantastic a it be vividly concrete and sad ( imagine kafka with a sicilian accent ) and tell the story of two italian and fiore ( michele placido and director of the recent romanzo criminale ) and his assistant gino ( enrico lo verso ) who come to the impoverish and wreck post communist albania with the scam of set up a shell shoe factory a what they or fiore and at least and because he alone be the mastermind and evil genius of the scam think will be a profitable tax shelter . they corrupt an albanian official name tellingly kruja which they turn into croce ( cross ) to grease the bureaucratic wheel and get the plan government approval . unsatisfied with others who have cooperate family who could make claim and they find spiro ( carmelo di mazzarelli ) a doddering and half senseless old man they be reassure to be tell be an orphan and who have be imprison by the communist for fifty year and and sign him up a the albanian figurehead president of the company . fiore go back to italy in a hurry and leave gino in charge of watch over the derelict factory they have take control of and make sure old spiro stay out of trouble . as soon a fiore be go and thing go wrong and and a the story progress and they go more and more wrong and until gino have lose everything and even his identity a an italian . the journey we go on be compulsive watching and echo tragic wandering like those of the father and son in de sica bicycle thief while or the couple in fellini la strada and the emigrant from turkey and armenia in kazan epic america america and or the child in clément forbidden game . amelio achieve a sense of understanding and a sorrow and pity that one can have only when everything have be strip away and nothing but one essential humanity remain . imagine the bad that could happen to you on a journey and and then take that ten step far and and you have an idea of the trajectory and transformative emotional power of lamerica . when gino finally get through to fiore on the phone and he learn that the scam have fail and they be in deep trouble and and he and spiro be both out of a job . of course spiro say he know it all along . old spiro be the pivot point of the film . at first he appear a doddering derelict and bad than a bum and cover with dirt and inarticulate and almost blind and clearly crazy . when ask his age he hold up his finger twice and and you realize he think he twenty the age he be when he be first imprison . but strangely somehow inside him there be a young man who seem slowly to be come out . gradually he emerge a a figure of great humanity and energy and hope and more stalwart than tragic or confuse . the first disaster be that spiro disappears from the nuns institution where they have leave him . after be a prisoner for fifty year and he want only to escape . gino finally find him and and take him on a journey to the coast in a jeep and but once theyre out in the boonies and gino be lose . he run around look for spiro and and when he get back to the car and it be strip of it tire . he call for the police and but he speak only italian . do anyone understand . they only stare at him . the staring face be brush amelio paint with and and at the end and on a boat heading for italy at last though spiro think theyre head for america the director give u an awesome series of face that be worthy of paul strand or the best of the fsa photographer of the dust bowl of the thirty represent face that speak volume . struggle to get to this point and gino and spiro begin to communicate . it turn out spiro be really a sicilian name michele talarico and he come to albania a a soldier during the war . he think he be a young man and with a young wife and a child bear four year ago . gradually spiro come to life . he be strong and perhaps more resilient than the young gino . but a gino grow more haggard lo verso dark and southern italian face be deeply expressive he grow more italian and close to spiro and to the most human and beautiful and real people of the world the poor and those who have nothing but hope and the will to go on . like the great italian neorealist filmmaker of the forty and fifty from whom he have learn so much and amelio us real place and real people with almost miraculous skill . what all this mean . first of all and it an affirmation of the sheer power of poverty . and chaos . theyre force of nature more powerful than fiore pathetic and mean spirited scam . but the fact that spiro insanity come to seem beautiful and hopeful show that the film isn not to be take too literally . it more a powerful myth than a message that it have to convey and and it good to dwell on it gut wrench sadness than to analyze too much what it have to say about albania and about colonialism and about rich and poor nation and economic exploitation . lamerica be an amazing film and and clearly set amelio apart a the most powerful and humanistic italian filmmaker work today . ( the riveting and soulful lo verso be equally central to amelio saga about italy in the post war period and the way we laugh or così ridevano and 1998 and and his 1992 stolen child or ladri di bambino ) . we do not know what will happen to gino . he may not go to sicily to pick olive a spiro suggests . but he would not ever rejoin fiore and his scam .