From the Edge of the City
Greece 1998
Reviewed by Jos Arroyo
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Athens, Greece, the present. Sasha, a 17-year-old petty thief and rent boy, rollerskates around town with his friends Kotsian and Panagiotis, breaking into cars and stealing radios. Sasha has quit the construction job he hated but is now too old to do much business selling himself. He scrounges money by occasionally bullying younger boys like Kotsian out of their nightly takings or by servicing rich women. Even former regular customer Nikos now prefers the younger Panagiotis. When Giorgos, an older pimp, proposes Sasha take over the handling of Russian prostitute Natasha while he finds a buyer, Sasha agrees.
Sasha is in love with Elenitsa but she's finished with him because of her father's objections to him. Sasha begins to have feelings for Natasha and decides to run away with her. Meanwhile his friend Anestis dies from bad heroin and Panagiotis falls to his death while trying to escape from Nikos' apartment. Sasha brings Natasha to his parents' house but his father instantly recognises her as a prostitute and kicks them out. Sasha asks Kotsian to call him a taxi but Kotsian betrays him and brings Giorgos instead. In a fight, Sasha accidentally kills Giorgos. Natasha goes away with her new owners. The police drive Sasha away.
Review
From the Edge of the City fits into a long and illustrious tradition of films about young no-hopers on the road to nowhere, such as William Wyler's Dead End (1937), Luis Buñuel's Los olvidados (1950) and Hector Babenco's Pixote (1981). But the gang depicted in From the Edge of the City is not just marginalised by youth, poverty and criminality but also by cultural dislocation. It depicts the flip side to (and would make a perfect double bill with) Ana Kokkinos' recent Head On. Both depict social, sexual and cultural conflicts within a Greek diaspora. But where Kokkinos sets her film in the context of Greek immigrants in Australia, the kids in From the Edge are Russian Pontians, people of Greek ancestry from the Black Sea area of Kazakhstan who returned to their ancestral homeland in 1990 only to find themselves strangers in their new country.
The great achievement of From the Edge of the City is the way it successfully conveys a sense of multidimensional alienation throughout. The boys are old enough to be considered sexually over the hill but not yet adults. They are not as ostracised as the Albanians they insult, but have no illusions they'll be accepted as fully Greek. Most reside in Menidi, a suburb of Athens, but make a living in Omonia, Athens' famous sex and crime district. While they sell their bodies to men, they distinguish themselves from "faggots". Sex is easily available, love visible but out of reach. They don't fit into their 'natural' identities (family, ethnic, national, sexual) yet have themselves formed a community with its own values.
Structurally, the film focuses on an individual, Sasha, who is allegorised as a representative of the group. The narration veers between a third-person narrator who sees everything and a first-person account by Sasha, addressed directly to the camera, in response to an unseen interrogator. Set mostly at night and grittily shot with a somewhat faded look, the film contrasts the poverty of the characters' present reality with the plenitude of their imaginary past (brilliant sunlight, sharper imagery, richly coloured straw tones). The film combines quickly edited stop-motion photography, creating the impression of a headlong rush, with freeze frames (particularly in the sex scenes) that convey a sense of dead time. Even the acting contributes to the film's depiction of diasporic alienation, of belonging to several places and nowhere at all, by combining professionals actors with street kids. The latter's presence has a curious effect: their occasionally clumsy line readings (in Russian and Greek) simultaneously remind us we're seeing a movie and that they are not actors and yet the film seems more authentic because they're not actors.
Director Giannaris knows his film history: the opening, with the boys rollerskating through Athens, is straight out of one of Jean-Daniel Cadinot's porn movies; there are several references to My Own Private Idaho and Jean Genet. But Giannaris also knows how to direct. For example, there's a small scene where the gang is hanging out and Sasha and Kotsian begin to dance. Half way through it we realise the scene is composed of one complexly choreographed, extremely long Steadicam shot, using non-professional actors; and yet dramatic value and characterisation are not sacrificed. It's this skilful but never flashy treatment which makes From the Edge of the City such a pleasure.
Credits
- Director
- Konstantinos Giannaris
- Producers
- Dionysis Samiotis
- Anastasios Vasiliou
- Screenplay
- Konstantinos Giannaris
- Director of Photography
- Giorgos Argyroiliopoulos
- Editor
- Ioanna Spiliopoulou
- Production Designer
- Roula Nikolaou
- Music
- Akis Daoutis
- ©Mythos - Cultural Action
- Production Companies
- Mythos - Cultural Action in association with Rosebud/Hot Shot Productions/Hellenic Film Centre presents
- Executive Producer
- Maria Powell
- Assistant Director
- Stella Charitopoulou
- Script Supervisor
- Katerina Barbatsalou
- Casting
- Spyros Charalambous
- Steadicam Operator
- Timos Koronetopoulos
- Graphic Artist
- Michalis Zisiou
- Art Director
- Michalis Samiotis
- Costume Designer
- Sanny Alberti
- Make-up
- Eleftheria Efthymiou
- Hair
- Chronis Tzimos
- Titles
- Tryk
- Manolis Sakadakis
- Takis Papadimitrou
- Musicians
- Keyboards:
- Michailis Gyzis
- Guitar/Keyboards:
- Akis Daoutis
- Tabor/Bagpipes:
- Spyros Iliadis
- Keyboard Programming:
- Charis Papadopoulos
- Priamos Sinopoulos
- Giorgos Tzortzos
- Grigoris Tsirbas
- Kementzes:
- Paris Perysinakis
- Vocals:
- Geli Stamatopoulou
- Theodora Tzimou
- Kanonaki:
- Petros Tambouris
- Saxophone:
- Babis Tsilivigos
- Soundtrack
- "Don't Stop the Reggae Music" by C.A. Boswell, I. Phillips, P. Gayle, F. Thompson, C. Hall, performed by Spida (From the Refugee Camp) Peal the Tarantula Crew; "Hold On" by John Martin, Joe Breen; "Den Eisai Tipota" [You're Nothing] by Vangelis Konstantinidis, performed by Antzela Dimitriou; "Mipos Eimai Trellos" ["Am I Mad?"]" by Chrisovvergis, Giatras, performed by Notis Sphakianakis
- Sound
- Dinos Kittou
- Sound Mixer
- Thymios Kolokousis
- Sound Effects
- Peter Burgis
- Cast
- Stathis Papadopoulos
- Sasha
- Kostas Kotsianidis
- Kotsian
- Panagiotis Chartomatsidis
- Panagiotis
- Dimitris Papoulidis
- Giorgos
- Theodora Tzimou
- Natasha
- Anestis Polychronidis
- Anestis
- Nikos Kamontos
- Philippos
- Stelios Tsemboglidis
- Stelios
- Giorgos Mavridis
- Chorny
- Panagiota Vlachosotirou
- Elenitsa
- Silvia Venizelea
- Thodora
- Emilios Chilakis
- Nikos
- Vasias Eleftheriadis
- father
- Evri Sophroniadou
- mother
- Giannis Kontraphouris
- Tasos Nousias
- pimps
- Eleni Philippa
- madam in brothel
- Kostas Gogos
- pimp in brothel
- Argyris Xafis
- taxi driver
- Giannis Kotsiphas
- Dimitrakis
- Paulina Santalova
- Svetlana
- Katerina Takouli
- Olga
- Simela Chartomatsidi
- Sasha's sister
- Konstantinos Giannaris
- voice of interviewer
- Tamila Kulieva
- voice of Natasha
- Nina Polychronidou
- voice of mother
- Anastasios Vasiliou
- voice of Thodora's father
- Savas Iliadis
- Giannis Mavridis
- Giorgos Pasalidis
- Christos Polychronidis
- Aristidis Ioannidis
- Stavros Karasavvidis
- children
- Marina Sidiropoulou
- Eleni Papadopoulou
- Viktoria Michailidiou
- Olga Karagiannidou
- Orpheas Prasodas
- Savvas Tilikigeridis
- Anestis Konstantinidis
- Grigoris Mavidis
- Anestis Mavridis
- Denis Prasodas
- Andreas Papoulidis
- Aslan
- Certificate
- 18
- Distributor
- Millivres Multimedia
- 8,385 feet
- 93 minutes 10 seconds
- Dolby SR
- In Colour
- Subtitles