It entered the competition at the 51st Venice International Film Festival, in which Amelio won the Golden Osella for Best Director.

After discovering that the Albanian figurehead for the corporation is a relative of their go-between, they replace her with Spiro Tozai, an old man taken from a hospice.

It is later discovered that Tozai is in reality Michele Talarico, a former Italian colonist who has been in hiding since the Second World War.

Gino is released, but with his passport confiscated, forcing him to board a ship bound for Italy overflowing with Albanian refugees.

[3] TV Guide gives the film four stars, finding it "A boldly chilling portrait of post-Communist Europe in moral eclipse, directed with passion and singular grace by Italian Gianni Amelio...".