Pontoi is the name given to the Greco-Russians, many of whom live in Menidi, a miserable district on the western edge of Athens. Originally from the Black Sea region, they were scattered across the ends of the empire during the Stalin era. SaÊa, for example, comes from Kazakhstan. He is 17, has a body like an ancient statue and lives from hustling. Unlike his colleague Panagiotis, however, SaÊa is not gay, just “flexible”. He often spends his free hours with NataÊa, a hooker who is a little older than him - under the watchful eye of her pimp, Giorgos ...
From the Edge of the City is a hybrid that is as stirring as it is groovy. Konstantinos Giannaris originally wanted to shoot a documentary, but then decided on a functionalizing approach; the film was cast with non-professionals, fragments of a conversation between the director and the main actor further emphasize the veristic moment. The staging of the play scenes, on the other hand, breaks with all the clichés of realism - Giannaris shows that his roots lie in music videos (for Bronski Beat, among others) and avant-garde film (Trojans, 1989; Mia thessi ston ilio, 1995). Something rubs against something else, clear perspectives are denied, (self-)images are constantly questioned. In the end, the movement is the decisive factor - the search, the energy.
