All the acting is fine. Particularly good are Natalia Kalimeratzi as Liza and Vassilis Bisbikis as Fotis, the young couple who spend most of the movie stranded out in the bush on the outskirts of Athens arguing the relative merits of an abortion, between bouts of sweaty sex.

But I think it’s Georgiou, who won best actress at the Hellenic Academy Awards last year, that is truly striking. Her performance is almost free of dialogue. It’s retrained and quiet. There’s a world of pain, and optimism just in the look of her eyes. This film is so brutal yet so poetic I’m not sure whether Gikapeppas has any time for cheap and pious morals. The film, though, is somehow weirdly optimistic. It depicts a cruel world, and yet people survive and move on because kindness is still possible.

https://www.sbs.com.au/movies/review/city-children-review