Balkanisateur

Average road movie/adventure, with two strapped-for-cash Salonikans driving through Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Switzerland on a currency scam, enriched by telling observation and uningratiating but engaging performances. Fotis is the footloose and fancy free womaniser, Stavros the married, more educated, sensible one. Notable scenes include a pick-up at a kitschy Sofia dance hall as, afterwards at the woman's flat, Stavros refuses to make love, perturbed by the grandmother's knitting and the peering kids outside; and a meal in Belgrade, where the two men are moved by the humanising hospitality of a group of diasporan Greeks. The film may have a conventional heart, but it tries hard to avoid easy targets.