It certainly appears that way, and it bursts out at us not from the cap of a Molotow but from the silver screen. Dubbed the ‘world’s first street art disaster movie’ the highly anticipated, Exit Through the Gift Shop, has all the markings of the havoc-wreaking Banksy enigma: it is as riotous as it is puzzling, hilariously engaging and yet maddeningly perplexing.

In the opening scenes of Gift Shop, we meet Thierry Guetta, an expat Frenchman and owner of a boutique vintage clothing store in LA. Guetta is a caricature of a man from his wildly animated arm-waving to his rapid-fire speech and though he is a likable kind of guy, it doesn’t take long for the viewer to wonder if this guy is actually for real or if he’s just another one of Banksy’s creations.

Guetta, we learn, is permanently attached to his video camera – he films everything he sees, all day, every day. On a trip back to his homeland in 1999, he immediately became fascinated by his cousin – an artist – and his work. His cousin is the world-renowned Invader who famously reinvented the old Space Invaders arcade game in the form of mosaics which, over the past decade or so, have popped up in alleys and laneways in every corner of the globe. And so began Guetta’s deep obsession with street art.  “I thought it was nice what they were doing. To do something you love then to put it outside.” He began to “see a gallery outside” and through Invader, he was able to infiltrate the underground movement.

Under the guise of a budding filmmaker, keen to make a documentary on the culture, he began following the likes of Monsieur Andre and Zeus. He soon met Shepard Fairey, the man behind the Andre the Giant OBEY campaign, and more notably, the iconic  Hope portrait of Barack Obama used in the 2008 presidential campaign. “Every night was an adventure” says Guetta when describing the ten months he followed Fairey.

But the Frenchman was unsatisfied. After following artists for months on end and hearing their stories about the legendary Banksy, he became obsessed in his search for the elusive artist. And just when he was about to give up, Fairey called in a favour – he asked Guetta to show his friend, who was visiting from the UK, all the best sites to ‘bomb’ in LA. That friend was Banksy. The two developed an odd partnership and Guetta soon became the artist’s trusted sidekick and confidante.

Like all the other artists before him, Banksy began to wonder about the documentary (which Guetta never intended to make), finally convincing him to sit down and put it together and to show the world that the sudden popularity of street art was not about money, as it had been panned by art critics all over the world. The result, a disastrous montage of badly edited footage titled Life Remote Control turned the tables on the pair’s partnership:  Banksy persuaded the Frenchman to hand over the tapes and let him put the film together and also suggested that in the mean time, Guetta, who had now built up an incredible knowledge of street art, should become an artist himself and put on an exhibition.

Not wanting to disappoint his mentor, he set out on a mission to become an overnight success. Guetta, now under the moniker of Mr Brainwash, employed graphic designers and illustrators to create ‘artworks’ as he had envisioned. An idea would pop into his head and, subsequently, he would instruct his designers on how to put ideas onto canvas using elements of other artists’ works he had seen previously.

It is at this point where the viewer begins to wonder what exactly this film is about. Is it even about Banksy at all? Is it about Guetta’s transformation into Mr Brainwash? Is it Banksy’s commentary on the art world, Mr Brainwash being demonstrative of how easy it is to be an instant artist? In a recent and extremely rare interview, Banksy told The Age that the film is absolutely not about the politics of the art scene, but rather, is a portrait of one man’s desire to express his creativity. Denying claims that Gift Shop is a mockumentary (or ‘prankumentary’ as one reviewer called it), he insists he found an interesting story in Guetta and that the film is about the Frenchman, not himself.

The most popular theory to emerge is that perhaps – with the right graphic designers, illustrators, promoters and marketing campaigns – anyone can be an artist, even without years and years of honing any skills; at the end of the day, these so-called artists are essentially just a bunch of frauds. Another theory is that Banksy (and to a lesser extent, Fairey) seems to be having a joke on someone – perhaps the viewer, or perhaps even Guetta himself, and it is this very idea that makes Gift Shop so perplexing.

Underlying all of this, however, is the absolute core of the film: the portrayal of Banksy himself. Peppered with commentary and interviews the artist gives his perspective and thoughts, not only on Guetta, but the street art culture in general. The film’s most memorable and hilarious scenes – from Banksy terrorising Disneyland to his explanation of the million quid of counterfeit notes sitting in his studio  – is all due to his sharp, dry and often sarcastic wit, his thoughts on society and culture and his amazing creative genius. It is from these snippets that the viewer is allowed to see a highly personal and private side of Banksy, a side which has been carefully and diligently hidden for so long. The end product, like many of his pieces, is thought-provoking, baffling, bewildering and utterly inspired. But despite the ambiguity of his motivations for making this film, it is by far the most intriguing and insightful portrayal of the highly elusive artist – and perhaps this is the very reason why Exit Through The Gift Shop came into being.

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Exit Through The Giftshop screens at ACMI for a very limited season from June 03. Check the ACMI website for session details.