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Amos Lassen wrote on 01/14/2010:

“Greek Pete”

An English Hustler

Amos Lassen

Pete has everything he wants but he also has a dream that he wants to pursue—he wants to be a male escort. He goes to London and meets Kai, a rent boy and the two fall in love. Pete has no trouble separating his life as a male escort from his personal life but Kai has a hard time sharing his lover with men who pay for his time. We see that both guys want different things out of life.
From the film’s title one might think that this is a biography of Pete (Pittaros) but it is really a look at the world of male prostitution. Pete is a Greek-Cypriot who begins nude modeling (for a price) and because of his love for money learns that an easy way to get rich quickly is to sell himself. He soon finds that his own pleasure is business and he is the product. He becomes a bill of goods as he advertises himself “5’11”, athletic looking, about nine inches cut, really good at role play, really horny all the time”.
The movie is judgmental and a sad look at the world of a London rent boy. Pete is sanguine about his profession; he does fine financially and emotional attachment is not a part of it. Through Pete we meet other members of rent boy society and there is not much left to the imagination. Director Andrew Haigh gives us a docudrama that is based upon six months that he spent in the rent boy community and we see the ups (easy money, etc.) and the downs (risk of beating, etc.) of a life like this. It is hard to distinguish fact from fiction—we really never know what is real and what is not and if I had to say that there is fault in this film that is what it is. The film is both entertaining and fascinating and it educates and challenges ideas we may have about escorting. It is honest (as far as I can tell) and is full of drama but I am sure that audiences will be divided about it. You need to watch it with an open mind and it will make you think and undoubtedly bring about discussion. I believe that the most important thing about this film is its frankness as we see a world that many wish did not exist. An interesting note is that Pete, the real person, left the rent boy business after the film was released. He did give us the impression that he was a bit shallow and probably could not have handled all the publicity.