Released in this country as a semi-sex film, Young Aphrodites is actually an erotic film, but a serious one based on the classic tale of Daphnis and Chloe, involving a group of nomadic shepherds who live in a world of innocent pagan sensuality. Director Nikos Koundouros sets his pastoral romance against a stark, rocky landscape along the Greek coast, where sunlight and shadow provide additional visual counterpoint to the film's main thematic contrasts. The main focus is on the sensual awakening of two children, remarkably played by Vangelis Joannides and Cleopatra Rota. At the time of its American release, Stanley Eichelbaum noted: “Young Aphrodites is a fascinating and imaginative movie - a ritualistic dance of love, hate, fear, lust and death. Koundouros has etched the film, frame by frame, with the artistic continuity of an unfolding mural. And his technique brings forth a pastoral pageant as beautiful and stylized as Chinese Opera.”