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Seminar: 23 February 2009 (Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara, more ... )

Italian Cinema of Migration

A screening and discussion of:

Lamerica (dir. Gianni Amelio, 1994)

Abstract

Albania, 1991. After weathering a pre-World War II short period of Italian fascism and decades of communism, Albania reveals to the world an economically devastated country. As hordes of refugees stream out of Albania to Italy, a pair of Italian con men arrive with promises of industry and jobs. Gino (Enrico Lo Verso) and his partner in crime Fiore (Michele Placido) come to Albania with a money-making scheme designed to capitalize on the surrounding political chaos. For the con to work, however, they need an easily exploitable native Albanian, and they recruit Spiro (Carmelo Di Mazzarelli). Easily confused and utterly impoverished, this elderly former political prisoner seems the perfect choice, until he unexpectedly disappears. Gino is assigned to find him, setting out on a journey that leads him to discover Spiro's tragic personal history and become intimately acquainted with the full extent of Albanian poverty.

Suggested reading

Duncan D., “ T he s ight and S ound of A lbanian m igration in c ontemporary I talian c inema”, Cardiff University New Readings, Volume 8: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/euros/subsites/newreadings/volume8/index.html

Nicola Mai, “The cultural construction of Italy in Albania and vice versa: migration dynamics, strategies of resistance and politics of mutual self-definition across colonialism and post-colonialism”, Modern Italy, 9 (1) (2003), 77-94.

Nicola Mai, “The Albanian Diaspora in the Making: media, transnational identities and migration”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 31(2005) special issue.

Ponzanesi S., “The Outlandish Cinema”, in Ponzanesi S., Merolla, D., Migrant Cartographies. New Cultural and Literary Spaces in Postcolonial Europe (Lanham: Lexingtonbooks, 2005), pp. 267-280.

This page last modified 26 September, 2012 by UCL Mellon Admin