Graffito

The superhero Graffito is unhappy in Germany. He goes to America and tries to make his own way in New York city. „The superhero has always been a mirror of the schizoid nature of the human personality itself: Clark Kent vs. Superman, the ego vs. the super-ego, the wish-fulfilment fantasy of almighty power and infinite possibilities vs. the harsh reality, where everyone is stumbling around, failing clumsily even at everyday tasks. Self-declared German superhero Graffito, complete with nylon suit and a “G“ logo emblazoned on his chest, bright green gloves and what looks like a pair of dark green swimming goggles, comes to New York. The orderly Germans had have neither experience with nor a stomach for superheroes, but surely that's gonna be different in the Big Apple, what with its tradition of Spider-Man etc. hanging out here? The filmmaking troika of writer/director Claudia Sárkány, writer/director/editor Rami Hamze and editor/DoP Mischa Leinkauf tells its story of a modern superhuman failure in a mockumentary style, with some real and some acted encounters our hero has in the streets of New York. His superhero ability is supposed to be that his wall-drawings come to life – or do they? Actually he tries to help ordinary citizens by offering to help them carry shopping bags, by holding the door open for them or by amateurishly trying to direct traffic. Maybe he's out of shape. Maybe he's just a weirdo. He finds out that hardly anyone is interested in him or his offered help – would you? So he mostly spends his time doing polaroid self-portraits in front of graffiti-covered walls or hangs out in a comic book store, whose owner comes from the Simpsons tradition. The recognition he came here for is nowhere to be seen, and gratitude at this point is pretty much out of the question. His (few) ideals are the first thing to go, when he finally has to make some money to survive. But isn't that the point? GRAFFITO is a film about individuality, about weirdos and self-respect, but it refuses to deliver a fantasy happy-ending of the freak finally finding love and fame. It's about coping with failure, about selling out, lowering your expectations, but never giving up, always clinging to your dreams. Is this guy weird because his dreams are different than ours? Maybe. But then again, we all go through this phase of disenchantment or disillusionment in life, and all our dreams are different, too. And if we can accept this guy in tights for what he is – which we magically do somewhere around minute five of this shaky, but thoughtful short film – then maybe we can finally accept ourselves as we are, too.“