Broken Song

GI, Costello and Willa Lee are street poets, hip-hop artists, rappers and songwriters from one of Dublin’s vast working class suburbs. Through their words they have found a way to diffuse their frustration with the chaos that surrounds them and to inspire others to master forms of self-expression which nurture creativity rather than anger. The pared-back aesthetic of Claire Dix’s documentary, shot elegantly in black and white (with occasional, metaphorical splashes of colour), ennobles her young subjects and mirrors the raw texture of their work. Her method is un-invasive, dwelling not on the detail of the boys’ sometimes shambolic lives, but focusing instead on their music. And while all are immensely talented, attention is drawn inexorably to the astonishing, haunting voice of 19-year-old urban soul singer Willa Lee.