Customer Reviews

From the Edge of the City

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of the most surprising films I've seen come out of Eastern Europe in years. It concerns a 17 year-old from the Greek suburbs whose family are immigrated Pontians. It's not so much about gay life as suggested, but about the street life of hustlers, prostitutes and outcast teenagers looking to fit into a society that considers them low class immigrants. (I don't want to give away too much).

The director shows a worthy talent for splicing a "pseudo" documentary style into a feature film. The intertwining stories of bought "[street women]", childhood innocence, the readily available drugs and the coming of age sexuality all work well. The camera work and editing are first class with progressive images and 'angled imagery' that work like eye candy.

It's a true slice of Greek life and full of plot twists. Sometimes discouraging, but never depressing, "Life On The Edge..." succeeds in making the viewer feel as if they were experiencing all that is being shown first hand. Every character is well studied and each carries thier own charisma.

This film won several awards and is well worth the viewing time. It is a collector item.

This is not a film about "gay life" as it has been fashioned in the United States, nor is it about gay "political correctness," nor was it intended as a love letter to the U.S., Russia, etc. If you can deal with those facts it's a damned good film.

The film is about the world of men prostituting themselves to women and men. It is not about what American gays have sanitized and romanticized as "hustling." It's a tough film about a tough life, and the cultural background and values are not South Beach and Palm Springs. The film techniques and the milieu that is portrayed have more in common with the post-WW II films of the French and Italians.

Yes, there is "eye candy," in "Apo tin Akri tis Polis" but there ain't nuthin sweet about this film, so if you're looking for a soft warm fuzzy flick on selling [sex] with hints of soft core porn here and there go elsewhere. However, if you can stretch beyond the parochial limits of "American" and "gay" you may enjoy this film despite the fact that it's not a walk in the spring rain.

A very best film by Giannaris that explores an ethic Greex-x(can) minority in Athens. The film win many awards and it is perceived one of the best experimentak films of 1999. A powerful, raw film about a group of outcast teenagers living in Menidi, a predominately Greek-Russian suburb near Athens, Greece. I saw that film in LA and I was suprised. This is want I really like. It has the elements of action, love, crime and mixed traditions. 100% u have to watch!

The film takes an unsparing look at the lives of a gang of Pontian immigrants from the former USSR, returned, after centuries, to their motherland, Greece. 17-year-old Sasha, sharp, streetwise and ambitious, is the leader of the gang. They roam Athens, hang out in clubs, hit brothels and cruise the city streets making a living from petty crime and from selling their bodies in Omonia Square, not so much human traffic as human cattle. Adolescents hungry for adventure, they dare to challenge the great city that sprawls seductively at their feet. Using all the means at their disposal, they stop at nothing.

It centres on Sacha (Stathis Papadopoulos), an ethnic Greek from the Black Sea area whose forbears were ethnically cleansed by Stalin and who returned to Greece from Kazakhstan in 1990 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, speaking a Greek-Russian hybrid. He and his contemporaries get by with casual jobs, turning tricks with older Greek men, doing drugs - and Sacha gets involved in the exploitation business, buying a "share" in a desperate Russian prostitute, with whom he falls in love.

Set against the parched, unforgiving landscape of suburban Athens, Giannaris's film is humid and clamorous, dramatising the incidental human aspect of these huge historical forces, while showing how weirdly ignorant of history his characters are. Sacha and his friends at one point argue about what happened in Chernobyl and agree it was where America dropped the atom bomb. There is something a little naive and redundant about the movie, with more than a few urban youth cliches - but there are interesting moments as well, particularly Sacha's surreal dreams, both of his own childhood and of his future traditional Greek wedding, enacted in a strange, silent cornfield.

For all GLBT lovers of film: be warned! This film is not what one would suspect!

"Picture This!" did a bit of injustice to this film with press releases and other descriptions... (I regret that, because all of the other DVD's I have purchased from this company were *excellent* and got 4 or 5 stars upon review).

That said: This film will not give anyone of Gay persuasion any comfort... in fact.. it will be most repulsive. The "previews" that suggest any gay alliances between friends are, to be blunt, betrayed... save for a single character, whose fate I will not disclose.

The main character of the film IS a hustler, but he hustles women from Russia. AND... he has a downright nasty attitude toward anything "gay". (To a friend he states his opinion regarding gay sex... once or twice is OK but after that, you are a "faggot"). This, coupled with an absolutely horrible remark by another character (pimp of women) about how Russia deals with "gays" (by slitting their faces at the corners of their mouths and beating them up (plus stuff I will not mention here) until "by their screams, their smiles eventually go from ear to ear") was a true repulsion!

But I have to admit: The film is raw and "does not seek a morality" (as a review on the DVD case stated).... though I certainly willNOT GO AS FAR as to say that it is the "Greek Version of "My Own Private Idaho")... (I honestly don't even want to pick the brains behind THAT review).

The cast is gorgeous (if one is looking for eye-candy) but the plot just rambles... and the editing leaves much to be desired! (Particularly the last two minutes of the film were a nonsensical jumble with a series of short 10-15 second scenes with a black out between each)... It almost seemed that the director had too much on his mind and had to sum up all that was said (and unsaid) in the first 70 min. of this film in a series of shots that tried to conclude things in a rush... not that any film needs a definate conclusion, but this film just ended as if the producers and director ran out of film!

There were some moments I could relate to, but they were few and far between the confusion of thought in this film. And I will admit that the actors were all believable in their characters, though it seemed necessary for almost every character in this production to be as vague as possible, save for a few. The best moments of this film dealt with subjects that were sub-plots of the way this film was represented in press releases... the death of a friend by drug overdose, the yearnings of two characters to be loved by their "patrons"... some pithy moments, to be sure, but not enough to carry the whole film!

Also.. I found the comments made by some characters to be somewhat out of the times.... but I may be totally wrong on this issue... but be prepared for Anti-Russian, Anti-American, and other comments that may just perturb you (Example: Chernobyl: "The Americans sent a nuclear bomb there") Of course... the comment was made by a teenage male, probably largely ignorant of world events.. but one has to wonder what the director of this film was up to!

Being as objective as I can be: If you wish to purchase this film because you are going to get a great film about Male hustling... then look elsewhere! (Try Viktor Grodeki's MANDRAGORA... so much more indightful and passionate!)

It wasn't a terrible fim... but it wasn't what I expected based on the reviews of critics and press by "Picture This!". So I give it a "3".

...a repeated comment from one of the interviewees in this strange little film from Greek writer/director Constantine Giannaris. Struggling somewhere between a docudrama and a ethnic drama, FROM THE EDGE OF THE CITY is written and filmed with gritty realism techniques that in the end adds some charm to an otherwise meandering movie.

During the Soviet Union era Greek Khazahkstani expatriates fled to Athens, Greece where they attempt to fit in to the Greek culture and society. But as with most immigrant groups there are challenges to face in trying to find their niche on the outskirts of a major city. The little town where they live is called Menidi and while the adults have learned Greek and found jobs, a group of teenagers who speak a mixture of Russian and Greek want the good things of life found in Athens yet waste away their own lives on roller-blading, petty crimes, cruising, drugs, male prostitution, and sexual and criminal exploitation by the wealthy Greeks: they want the good life without working for it.

The focal person of the film is Sasha (Stathis Papadopoulos) - the one who refers to himself as Rosa Ponds in interview. As with the rest of the cast he is a beautiful young man with many conflicts who seems to be seeking his identity. He and his friends move from drugs to petty crime to criminal involvement with prostitution (of both gay and straight forms). There are many subplots that could use more definition as the film tends to meander about the streets without direction. The boys become involved as both victims and perpetrators of abusive behavior, yet there is something in the nature of Sasha that makes us hope his life will even out.

Giannaris worked with street kids with no prior acting experience, a fact the gives a true sense of verismo to the film. Both the men and women involved are eye candy and while this film is being marketed as a gay movie, there is very little content to rank it as such - as though the Greek homophobia would not condone a popular movie to dwell on that subject.

Nice eye candy for everyone, but not a lot of substance. Keep your expectations low and the movie will satisfy as a study of the problems of immigrants on the periphery of big cities around the world. Grady Harp, December 05

What is a nation? According to Benedict Anderson it is a community socially constructed; an imagined community, indeed. In order to be Greeks or Russians one must first share these imaginary narratives that set apart one people from the other. Cohesiveness must come after everyone commits to this exercise of the imagination. What happens, however, with young men like Sasha and his group of friends? Raised in Russia and then transferred back to the land of their progenitors they feel neither Russians nor Greeks. They have been expelled out of any possible narrative of integration, and instead they are lingering on the edges of the city, on the marginal borders that preclude them from obtaining full status citizenship.

Unable to fit in, these youngsters cannot be a part of the symbolic order. Society has banned them and as a consequence they partake in illegal activities. Some of them are good at stealing, others at prostituting themselves. But then again, since being a hustler is the most profitable activity most of them try to gain the favor of other men.

Sasha is a boy struggling with his own identity. He is heterosexual and he falls in love with a common whore. However, the only way he can make money is by participating in the same activities his friends do. If identity is defined throughout adolescence, it's very revealing witnessing this group of kids coming to terms with what they do. They're 18 or 19 years old and some of them affirm that everything is alright as long as they assume the active role in homosexual intercourse. Others, more lucidly, realize that it doesn't matter who penetrates who, all that matters is that sex is taking place.

Nonetheless, the kids cannot let go of social conventions, after all, identity also depends greatly on how one pictures oneself. Our own images also depend on the gaze of the other. But since all of them are estranged from imaginary narratives since the very beginning, they find it difficult to find their place into the world. One can only wonder if at least one of them will be able to step aside of the vicious circle of poverty.

A Picture This production, it is about a bunch of kids who are Russian immigrants to Greece, the movie is spoken in two languages, Russian and Greek. The plot revolves around Sasha, a seventeen very attractive young man. Sasha is bisexual as most of his friends. His family are Russian and his father feels he is a looser. Sasha's friends hustle for extra money, including himself. However, he prefers women over men. There seems to be an interview between Sasha and an unseen man throughout the entire movie, perhaps in prison, because of what he does at the end of the movie.

The movie focus on the perils of growing up in a city. There are the typical hang out places, lots of drugs and booze (one guy dies from an overdose, Anestis), the club scenes, the street dancing. The kids are all nice and cute. There are the prostitutes and the money made by them. Sasha becomes responsible for one (Natasha.) She was brought into the country illegally from Russia by Sasha's friend (Kotsian.) She is to be sold to a pair of Greek men. Kotsian makes Sasha responsible for her while on business in Athens.

There is the rich gay guy (Panagiotis), who pays high for Sasha's friends (including himself) to have sex. One of Sasha's friend falls for this guy, and has an accident trying to get into his second floor home. Sasha develops feelings for Natasha and tries to free her. Sasha fights Kotsian and kills him. Sasha goes to prison.

The movie is devoid of real love. It pictures that basically all problems are the same among men throughout the world, gay or straight. There are a lot of cute Eastern European men. The movie is culturally interesting, and if you can afford it, nice to view.

OK, so this movie tackles some important issues, and not on the glossy streets of LA, Sydney or London - but on the grimey streets of Athina. Still, this movie is lacking in a lot of things. It appears that they have settled for any guy who was capable of speaking Russian and Greek who had a good body and was willing to play a 'queer'. (I might add here his Russian was awful - though I know not of his proficiency in Greek) His acting scenes were horrid! - especially when Sasha had to talk to camera in his 'interviews!'

Even so the film had a great concept, some (I mean some) great camera work, but the movie never takes hold, and just never kicks off the ground. A good attempt by the director, but they should have had a few more goes before releasing internationally.

As always, best to get it yourself and make up your own mind. However if you are after light-hearted time (it never claims to be), after a perve, or after an extremely memorable experience: go do the dishes instead. On the other hand: if you want to just 'watch a movie' well hey why not? :)

For starters, I just did not get inspired by this film. I didn't like it. I tried to find good in it so I could give it (at least) 3 stars, but no luck. I never connected with any of the characters, not even the lead Sasha. The best part of this production is the Trailer, which led me (and others I am sure) to purchase this film.

The story is referred to as a Greek Version of "My Own Private Idaho", and that is probably correct, though it has been at least 10 years since I viewed "My Own Private Idaho". I recall that one was also ackward, but I also recollect connecting with at least one of the film's characters.

"From the Edge of the City" follows the lives of (mostly) male hustler's. The storyline seems to be all over the place. I did not find myself gripped to the screen - ok, with the possible exception of watching the very hot lead Sasha!

If you are looking for the gay angle in this story (I was, after all, it was released by PictureThis! Home Video) and featured as a trailer on most of their gay releases, it will take you nearly an hour into the film before the topic is dealt with at any level, minus a few sentences here and there. At the point where the film could develop the story of one hustler's emotional connection with a gay man who pays for his services, it fails to do so with any real effort, and even so, there is little time left in the film.

I by no means expected a "Brady Bunch" storyline or a happy ending; I expected neither, and they are not here. After the film, I watched the trailer again, and felt it really did a misleading job of promoting this movie, or maybe the film simply isn't that good?

A few hot scenes, some quality, but overall, far less then I expected. FYI - The film is in Greek and Kazak with English subtitles.