AKA ISKIRI DOSI ... SEX
Directed by Elia Milonakos
Greece; 1978

OPERATION ORIENT is a little Greek sexploitation/crime number that’s pretty damned interesting. Maybe cause it’s my first exposure (of many, hopefully) to the world of Hellenic exploitation but I was fairly fascinated by its odd atmosphere. ORIENT doesn’t play by the rules of most other countries' genre films. It has no real central character and the characters it does feature are all singularly unlikable. The plot concerns stolen heroin and the greasy Mediterranean-Mob types who try to recover it. It gets fairly complicated with lots of double-crossings and back stabbings and ulterior motives and such. But it doesn’t really add up to much, although the lack of central focus for the plot gives the whole thing a weird, sultry ambience. It squares onto odd little character details and random plot machinations while the acid-rockish score holds everything together. There’s also mucho flesh-o on display, although all the naked chicks are rather gaunt looking. But a few are really, really hot. I mean really hot. A hotness suited to the backing Aegean summer. That helps the film through its dull, patches frankly, but those are really few and far between as the flick throttles towards its strangely inconclusive conclusion at a rapid and interesting pace. The movie is no classic, not a movie you’ll want to pull out again and again or enthuse to your friends about, but was highly enjoyable nonetheless. Recommended to the Greek-sexploitation curious and fans of Eurotrash in general.

Print provided by an old Private Screenings VHS tape I bought 6 or 7 months ago.
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