How narrow the boundaries between fiction and reality, between reality and staging can be, shows the great documentary (?) "Banksy - Exit through the gift shop". Ambitious but only partially talented amateur filmmaker Thierry Guetta decides to make a film about the ever-growing street art scene. More and more artists of the scene are captured by Guetta's camera, their mostly illegal but almost always fascinating work captured for eternity. Soon there is only one goal for Guetta: he wants to meet Banksy, that legendary street artist whose true identity is known to hardly ANYONE.
With a lot of persistence and even more luck, Thierry Guetta actually manages to meet Banksy and introduce him to his project. But instead of becoming the object of the documentary, Banksy turns the tables and puts Guetta at the centre of the action. With unexpected consequences...
To reveal more about this film would be to be mean to any potential viewer. For just as Banksy has so far managed to keep his true identity a secret, so too with his film he keeps viewers in the dark as to whether he is telling the truth or just staging another ambitious work of art. But no matter what is reality and what is staged, whether the film is more documentary or "Mockumetary" - either way "Banksy - Exit through the gift shop" is a great satire on the contemporary art scene, the fast pace of the media world and a great declaration of love to street art. Sometimes funny, sometimes unbelievable in the truest sense of the word, and always highly interesting, this is probably the most unusual film of the year.
If you like surprising cinematic experiences off the beaten track and at the same time want to be entertained by a really good satire, you should not miss this "documentary". The fact that the viewer is also given a good insight into the street art scene is a very pleasant side effect. Therefore: absolutely worth seeing!
Ein Artikel von Frankfurt-Tipp
