Film Summary
"Tell me Lana, how would you like to see America?" During and following the Balkan Wars of the 1990's, various types of war criminals and low level mobsters escaped to countries in Western Europe fleeing either the authorities or their enemies. Some even found their way to America, hiding out on the back streets of large cities while taking on new identities. Many more innocent people came to America dreaming of a better life and a fresh start away from all the horrors they had witnessed. Out of this turmoil, comes the story of Darko Lucev and his sister Lana. Darko, a criminal on the run, finds illegal transport to the U.S. and offers to take his sister Lana with him. She is alone in the world, clinging to the only family she has left, not knowing what lies ahead for her thousands of miles away from home. Lana's hopes are simple ones, but the transition to her new life in America is fraught with danger and deception, brought on by her brother Darko who has his own plans on how to survive in their new country. As the film is told in flashback from Lana's perspective, the story of LANA'S RAIN unfolds against an impersonal city of Chicago, dwarfed by impervious skyscrapers, a perfect city where it's easy for outsiders to get lost on the back streets of the sprawling city, mingling in with other forgotten people found on the fringes of the city…the lonely, the unemployed, the homeless, the prostitutes, the drug addicts. After they roam the streets of Chicago for awhile, the brother and sister find a room in a dingy transient hotel, quickly learning about the underside of American life.