YU-Qwest's Movie Special Interest Group
Film Review
SOMEONE ELSE'S AMERICA, a comedy by Goran Paskaljevic
Village Voice
May 14, 1996
Leslie Camhi
- Cast: Miki Manojlovic
Tom Conti
Maria Casares
Zorka Manojlovic
Sergej Trifunovic
Exclusive engagements start Friday, May 10, in New York City at
Lincoln Plaza Cinemas - 63rd st. & Broadway, tel. 757-2280
showtimes: 12:05, 2, 3:55, 5:55, 8, 10
and
Quad Cinemas - 13th st. between 5th and 6th Ave., tel. 255-8800
showtimes: 1:05, 3:05, 5:10, 7:10, 9:10
* * *
Village Voice
May 14, 1996
Someone Else's America
Directed by Goran Paskaljevic
Perhaps only a Yugoslavian could have dreamed up this vision of Brooklyn
as a paradise of interethnic solidarity. Goran Paskaljevic's Someone Else's
America is the story of two best friends and perennial losers. Miki
Manojlovic,
a model of soulful Balkan manliness, stars as Bayo, an illegal immigrant
whose
jobs include cleaning up toxic waste and sweeping the Brooklyn bar owned
by
his only friend, Alonso (Tom Conti). Bayo sends money to his mother and
children back in Montenegro; he shares the bar's rear room with a bantam
rooster that reminds him of home.
Alonso, an unhappy bachelor, lives upstairs with his blind, imperious
mother
(Maria Casares); all she wants is to return to the Spanish village they
left
years ago. Meanwhile, Bayo's little daughter pines for her absent
father, and
his teenage son plans a journey to America that will take them across the
perilous Rio Grande.
Someone Else's America is a poignant film about loss, estrangement, and
displacement, though it suffers from heavy-handed direction and wooden
dialogue. Paskaljevic captures some of the piebald charm of New York's
outer boroughs, but getting the "gorgeous mosaic" right is tricky. Alonso's
mother would have been longing for Puerto Rico in the Williamsburg I know.
Still, stealing the show amid a talented cast is Zorka Manojlovic, Miki's
real-life and screen mom. As she weeps in a graffiti-covered Brooklyn yard
for the lost land of goats and stone tables, or stuffs cabbage while
smoldering with anger and regret, she's a sturdy reminder of the Old Country
in us all.
- Leslie Camhi
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