Bomb the System

Blest (a 19-year-old graffiti writer) and his crew spend
their time bombing the city with graffiti messages. Their
art-crimes are a craving as strong as any artist’s urge to
create, but involves constant conflict with a corrupt N.Y.P.D.
Vandal Squad striving to clean up the streets as well as
with the shop assistants who catch them shop-lifting spray
cans. When the police beat up Lune, a younger member of
the crew, it declares a full out graffiti war on the system.
But attracting media and gallery attention for his tags and
meeting Alexandra (a political ad-busting activist) makes
Blest reflect upon the different paths to follow in his life.

In this visually strong feature film debut, Adam Bhala
Lough makes a fresh, daring tribute to graffiti art and the city
where it all began: New York. Storytelling’s Mark Webber
(a graffiti artist himself) offers his best performance yet as
the rather complex character Blest who stands out well in
comparison to the one-dimensional, almost caricature-like
representatives of the police squad. Ben Kutchin’s colourful
cinematography and the poetic, yet haunting imagery of Jay
Rabinowitz’s editing (reminiscent of his previous work on
Requiem for a Dream and several of Jim Jarmusch’s movies)
mix well with the restless pulse of underground culture in a
visual metaphor for DJ-mixing.

Carin Larsson

Medverkande
Mark Webber, Gano Grills, Al Sapienza: Producent
Ben Rekhi: Manus
Adam Bhala Lough: Foto
Ben Kutchins: Musik
El P: Talat språk
English