Wholetrain

I saw this at the 13th Bradford Film Festival in Yorkshire, England. Due to a serious lack of proper publicity (on the festival's behalf), only six or seven people showed up to the screening. This is a crying shame, because the film is great on so many levels.

For a debut, Gaag has made an amazing piece on a subject sparsely covered in cinema. The characters are complex, well-written human beings and not just there as a backdrop to the graffiti writing. The whole cast give truly natural and intense performances; the main four writers (a crew of ethnic and native backgrounds) showing a deep passion for their art. The film could also be seen as an exposé on the ridiculous stance the German government (and governments world-wide) take on this subject. We gain real sympathy for these characters as their lives are torn apart, mainly because the authorities choose to make life so hard for them.

The cinematography was spot on: a gritty yet delicate portrayal of life on the under-ground. Yet through the grey, dusky palette we get bursts of colour that literally "burn" off the writers' canvases. The train sequences really are joy to behold.

The subject matter of the film should not be seen as a deterrent to spectators unfamiliar with the world of graffiti writing. I for one am no aficionado on the subject, but was drawn in and captivated through-out. The sound-track, also composed by Gaag, really is the icing on the cake and is a glorious testament to the 6/7 years of work he has put in to this film. I implore you to give it a chance - you will not be disappointed.

What a funny comment by Gattler. He claims he knows Munich quite well yet hasn't seen any Graffiti there? Wow. Where did he hang out? With catholic church youth groups? Sad, sad, sad. Sheer cluelessness. The Hip Hop scene in Munich developed rapidly in the mid eighties. Maybe the near US Army Bases, for which Run DMC performed as early as 1985, were part of the reason. Fact is, back then not only amazing Hip Hop clubs like "Area", "Eastside" or "California" spread the word and had you shake your booty to hard beats ( while most of the rest of Germany listened to U2), but more important: the famous Fleamarket at the Dachauerstreet in Munich quickly became one of the hotspots of the best writers not only in Germany, but in Europe. On its walls one could find astounding pieces from artists like Mode 2 and other legends from Europe's other graffiti capitals like Amsterdam and Paris. In those times at least 1 out of 5 trains in Munich were bombed with graffiti pieces. Wholecars, wholetrains or just throw- ups...you name it. The scene was alive like no other in Germany. Back then we used to make fun of Berlin. The only Graffiti they had over there were the political scribblings on the wall. Hip Hop? Hamburg and Cologne were alive too, but back then....Munich ruled. This was the time director- writer Florian Gaag grew up in Munich and became one of the leading spray can artists of the town. And that is the reason his movie " wholetrain" is the most authentic, passionate, relentless and wonderful film about this still overlooked subculture out there. The movie doesn't explain much, it doesn't apologize, it doesn't portray the writers as nice, harmless guys and it doesn't pretend to give any social reasons. It just rolls and shows you how it is. If you have real love for Hip Hop, this movie is for you.

This movie was filmed in my hometown Munich and also in Warsaw, Poland. Since i know Munich quite a bit and i never saw one single graffiti piece drawn on a train or any serious graffiti somewhere in the city, i suppose the movie was entirely shot at Warsaw. The film is something else than the usual scene/underground releases, because it offers a story with characters. They perform pretty good. The music is superb, better than expected. Unfortunately the pieces are shown way too short. The story remembers me strongly of Beat Streat. You have the newborn child, you have the crew with the angry guy who's pieces got crossed. On the other hand, the Graffiti seems real with Wholetrain which it wasn't in BeatStreet.

Unfortunately, the movie annoys in the end, when the only whole train of the entire movie shows up. They show the train mixed with shots of some poor guys cleaning the train and destroying the piece of art - before you can even can get a longer glimpse of it. That lecture was unneeded and seemed out of place. Overall its a nice German graffiti drama with great acting and great music, the story is well constructed but offers nothing new.

Munich - in part. but the film doesn't want to say, in which city the action takes place. in a convincing way the film can give idea of the German adolescent graffiti scene. the plot, well - as it's like: to prettify trains with cool graffiti, stands simply contrarily to the aesthetic opinions of the government authority. thus one leads a shade existence, always in conflict with the police. but Tino, David, Elyas and their new disciple Achim want to become the greatest.

and then the young life is anyway crisis-vibrated: love, smoking weed and fighting "cliques". in addition: hip hop and graffiti styles.

overall: it rules.

Considering that it was a nightmarish experience for me to follow a group of juvenile delinquents onto their ego trip to self-destruction, I have to admit that this film is surprisingly well made. The script, the acting, the graffiti, the locations, the music, they all gel. We always get the impression that the director is close and true to his subjects, rather than posing or acting as a social worker with a camera. On his invitation we get to follow a reckless bunch of young graffiti artists around in an unnamed German megalopolis (represented here mostly by Warszawa, Poland). By competing with another crew they are forced to produce ever bigger and more outrageous graffiti, until they face the ultimate goal: to vandalise, I mean adorn, a whole subway train with their spray-painted imagery. At the same time, they are fighting an even harder battle to keep the rest of their dismal lives in check. Dead-end jobs, nagging girlfriends, the law, the parentals. Especially the leader of the pack, David, has to make up his mind whether he wants to grow up and come clean or continue on his albeit exciting path to nowhere.

For that opportunity to ride with the colourful crew, you have to buy into their machism and denial of the fact that their shtick is mostly plain and simple vandalism (and I'm not talking about putting a mural on some concrete bridge pillar).