Kneecap call themselves “post-Good Friday Agreement bad boys”. Photo: Supplied.
Kneecap call themselves “post-Good Friday Agreement bad boys”. Photo: Supplied.
Film review: Kneecap is an exhilarating, somewhat fictionalised biopic of the real-life Irish rap group which has been breaking ground and taboos in recent years. It’s a hilarious, ecstatic battle cry for the importance of indigenous language, told in Trainspotting-esque, impenetrable dialogue and a righteous two fingers to the establishment.
What’s more, it stars the actual trio of young lads playing slightly heightened versions of themselves, whose unlikely meeting inspired the world’s first Irish-language hip-hop group. In real life, they met at an Irish language festival; the film version has a much funnier meet-cute that borrows from one of the rapper’s own experiences.
Let’s stick to the movie version, then.
Belfast teacher JJ (JJ Ó Dochartaigh) subs as an Irish language interpreter for the local police when they drag in youthful protester Liam (Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh) who refuses to acknowledge he speaks or understands English. The two spark up a connection over Liam’s way with words, and in true educator fashion, the teacher sees an opportunity to help Liam and his best mate Naoise (Naoise Ó Cairealláin) turn their self-penned lyrics into hit songs.
Soon, the three are performing drug-fuelled sets in working men’s clubs and growing a following online. But their troubles aren’t over as they fight against centuries of British colonisation and for recognition of Gaelic as an official language.
Film-maker Rich Peppiatt had very little experience when he started harassing the real band Kneecap to collaborate on a film about themselves. The four co-wrote the exuberant tale, which mixes archive footage of Belfast’s history with an anarchic wit and focus on the present.
The band calls themselves “post-Good Friday Agreement bad boys” and while their message is necessarily and unapologetically political, it’s peppered with references to drugs and partying, too.
The real characters perform brilliantly alongside professional actors Michael Fassbender (as Naoise’s activist father, who raises the boys with a passion for the language) and Simone Kirby (Jimmy’s Hall) as the beleaguered mum.
Laden with sex, drugs and cartoon-scribbled English subtitles, Kneecap is hugely entertaining. While the script includes hyperbolised clichés of run-ins with the evil police, this doesn’t detract from its messages about oppression and intergenerational trauma, and the power of speaking one’s own language.
