KARACHI: German film highlights problems of hip hop generation
KARACHI, May 10: Quick, stylish cuts, a pumping hip hop soundtrack and a gritty shooting style were the distinguishing features of Status Yo!, a 2004 German feature shown at the Goethe Institut on Thursday.
Part of the Windows on Europe film festival, which will conclude on May 16, the Till Hastreiter directed picture was a firm departure from classic film-making.
It employed MTV-esque techniques; that is, it was shot more like a music video, with daring, slightly abrasive post-production techniques and much looser framing.
The story follows a bunch of youths getting by in post-wall Berlin, with hip hop culture being the tie that binds. Hailing from different ethnic backgrounds and the lower income bracket, their mission is to organise the biggest and supposedly best party Berlin has ever seen in 24 hours, while dodging all obstacles in their way.
Though the plot sounds slightly fluffy, the director manages to work in the problems of immigrants (specifically second generation Turks) and the urban underclass in general, into the story-line.
The break-dancing, psychedelic graffiti and hip hop/techno soundtrack just keeps things interesting and prevents the film from becoming too preachy.
Though at times it appeared to be a hip hop kung fu movie, all things considered, Status Yo! is highly entertaining fare, that expresses the problems of the jilted generation in a contemporary idiom.
Vadaszat Angolokar, or Hunting For Englishmen, a Hungarian feature from 2006 directed by Bertalan Bagó, was also screened. Set in rural Hungary of the 1830s, it tells the story of an English engineer who falls for a local girl, just as the Russian Tsar is planning an incursion.—QAM
