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.
