Someone Else's America

Someone Else's America opens in Brooklyn, across the East River from Manhattan, where the skyscrapers loom like a steel-and-concrete promise forever beyond the immigrants' reach. Bayo, from Montenegro, has been in the United States for less than a year, doing odd-jobs for his Spaniard friend, Alonso (Tom Conti, Shirley Valentine). In his spare time, he works with a crew of other illegal aliens, wearing a gas mask and cleaning up toxic waste sites. The money he earns, he sends home, where his mother and three children still reside. Not for long, however, as it turns out. Spurred by the desire of Bayo's oldest son, Luka (Sergej Trifunovic), to reach the new world, the four embark on an ocean voyage to Mexico, where a "travel guide" agrees to take them north of the border. Tragedy strikes as they cross the Rio Grande -- Bayo's youngest son is swept away in the currents, and the family's subsequent reunion becomes a sad event.