Andrew Haigh | Greek Pete / 2009

best escort of the year

by Douglas Messerli

 

Andrew Haigh (director) Greek Pete / 2009 [documentary]

Greek Pete (or Peter Pittaros) is a London rent boy who during the making of this film was chosen as the most outstanding escort in the world. It’s not that Pete is so stunningly handsome, although he apparently is well-endowed. But his charm lies in his personality, a man who in Andrew Haigh’s first film reveals himself to have almost an indomitable sense of life. He recognizes what he is doing will seem strange and even disgusting to many (he still keeps it secret from his father), but for him it’s simply a job, like an accountant, a baker, a lawyer, and he intends to be the best at his job as anyone else might try to be in their profession. He succeeds by actually talking with his clients and pretty much giving them whatever sexual pleasures they desire, even though some of them are quite kinky. The only thing we won’t do, apparently, although he even leaves that open to question, is to be fucked bareback or even fuck others without a condom. And he knows the limits and is forceful enough, and perhaps strong enough to enforce them. Unlike most rent boys, moreover, Pete identifies totally as a gay man, admitting that he loves sex.

      His faith in life and his utter belief in people is reiterated through Haigh’s documentary film—shot over about a year—radiates in nearly every frame. We see him engaged in sex, simply talking to clients, participating in nude shoots, and talking directly to the camera; but mostly we watch him in the home he has apartment he has rented in Convent Park where various other prostitutes, male and female gather to talk, celebrate holidays, and just hang out. There we also meet Pete’s lover Kai (Lewis Wallis), and other figures who go under such monikers as Barbara Bush (Tristan Field), Hotblond84 (Liam Thompsoon), Fitfuck86 (Barry Robinson), Youngandcuteland (Robert Day) and Tightass91 (Steve Turner).  

 

   Together they talk about the difficult and dangerous times they’ve had—several of them have been raped (which even they describe as a strange phenomenon for someone who has openly elicited sexual contact), beaten, and forced to do strange activities far beyond S&M activity, hot wax and piss; one describes having fucked a man who then asked him to come in and fuck his wife—share a full Christmas meal, and get drunk. But the dark turn in all of this is the drugs. Although Pete is clearly into cocaine, the younger kids around him are far deeper into drugs and can’t control their appetite, almost all the money they earn going into the purchase of more drugs. Pete on the other hand is saving up to live a good life, a house he can fill with objects, maybe art and books, although not apparent that growing up in a small apartment in which his brother and he slept in the living room that he has ever been to a museum or even read a book. But Pete is a dreamer and despairs for Kai’s inability to keep busy, work the streets, and save for the future. Pete, it appears, is also somewhat of a pragmatist knowing that although he’s been in the business for only two years, he doesn’t have a long while left.

      Indeed, when he returns from Los Angeles after winning the international award for the best escort, he seems to have lost contact with most of his friends and clients, making calls to report he’s back and any time they want to meet up, he’ll be available. He finds Kai, who he’s finally thrown out of his apartment, asleep in his bed, so dead on drugs that he doesn’t even awaken too Pete’s touch. The ultimate emptiness of it all, including somehow Haigh’s somewhat celebratory film, is brought home with the sudden silence. What does it even mean to others that Pete is now the best escort of the year? Pete sits proudly, award in hand, with no one to share the news.

      One imagines he might have another year, maybe a few months or so but what will he do when the two-hour encounters for 200 quid disappear and the drugs have finally taken hold?

      Still, I’d love to meet up with Greek Pete, a charmingly cute boy, with an open grin and enough moxie to force the cynical person smile. By the end of the film, even his face seemed more beautiful given the infectious smile he posts to the world.  

      If Haigh’s first film is a little rough-hewn he would go on to direct some of the most powerful films both about gay and heterosexual relationships, Weekend (2011), 45 Years (2015), Lean on Pete (2017), and most recently, All of Us Strangers (2023), all of which have had critical and some financial success.

 

Los Angeles, July 30, 2023

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July 2023).