Screening to a packed-out artsy Berlinale crowd, Banksy's debut film 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' presented a brilliant critique on humans and their relationship with art. True to style, Bansky debuts in unconventional style, redirecting the camera from himself to someone 'much more interesting'. Frenchman Thierry Guetta has a family, a vintage clothing business and an addiction to video cameras; he cannot live without a third eye capturing everything that happens, not matter how mundane. When chance finds him making a documentary about the world of underground street art, he must find and befriend the notorious Banksy to star in his film. Renaming himself 'Mr Brainwash', Thierry eventually joins the ranks as a street artist and finds himself setting up a mammoth 'Banksy' style exhibition. His journey is unplanned and unpredictable, but when he has an idea, he goes at it with gusto!Acutely aware of the hype that surrounds him, Banksy maintains his secret identity throughout the film. Faceless and deep-voiced he assumes a God-like persona; and with a mixture of embarrassment, horror and bemusement, he tells the story as it unfolds, lamenting the unintentional creation of a monster.
Throughout history, 'documentary' has strived for verisimilitude; the ability to capture the real. In many ways, I think 'Exit through the Gift Shop' is one of the most successful in its genre. This mainly comes down to the fact that the film was never intended, therefore there is no ulterior motive or bias from which it was created. Compiling decades of amateur, home-video style footage, Bansky created this portrait of obsession and as he points out from the beginning, there is probably no moral lesson to be taken away from it, just the ironic and baffling phenomenon of 'Mr Brainwash'.
Most of all, it's the ambiguity of Thierry as protagonist that renders this story better than any fiction. Is he an artist, genius, conman or madman? We are left to make up our own minds!
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