From the Edge of the City

In the immigrant ghettos outside Athens, kids seek kicks fast and furiously. Sasha from Kazakhstan like sex, drugs and lying in. He quits his job on a construction site to spend more time with his girlfriends and hang out with his mates - one of whom, Giorgos, wants to sell him a Russian prostitute, Natasia, for safe keeping. The others are too out of it to offer him any better advice. Giannaris, a Greek-born director now based in Britain, propels the film forward on the back of pulsating dance music and a busy montage of action, dream tableaux and reflective interviews to camera with his inscrutable protagonist (Papadopoulos). There's an urgency here that well describes these kids' outlook; equally, a symptomatic bravado and bluster. But the restless jumpcutting never adds up to much and the roles themselves elicit minimal sympathy or interest.