“Every word of Irish spoken is a bullet fired for freedom.”
Fuck up it is! Rich Peppiatt’s hyper-kinetic Kneecap is A Hard Day’s Night for the North of Ireland and the hip hop generation. A little bit true and a lot untrue version of the formation of the Irish language hip hop West Belfast trio Kneecap. Staring Naoise Ó Cairealláin AKA Móglaí Bap, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh AKA Mo Chara, and JJ Ó Dochartaigh AKA DJ Próvai as sometimes fictionalised versions of themselves; Peppiatt’s in your face odyssey of the post-ceasefire generation in Belfast is outrageous, drug fuelled, foul mouthed, and crackingly sincere.
Narrated by Liam the film begins by showing us how most other films about Belfast begin; with a bunch of car bombs going off. Not this one. It all starts when baby Naoise is taken to be baptised in a traditional Irish ceremony in the woods by his parents Arló Ó Cairealláin (Michael Fassbender) and Delores (Simone Kirby) and the gathering is mistaken by the RUC as an IRA meeting with choppers beaming lights down upon them. “What chance did the wee lad have?” Liam asks.
Arló is a revolutionary – teaching little Naoise and Liam the power of Gaeilge as an act of resistance and empowerment. He’s adored by Delores and the lads. Little did they know he was also the “blowing up things” kind of paramilitary revolutionary. One day he disappears before the RUC can take him leaving Naoise and Delores without closure as he fakes his death.
Liam takes the audience through the evolution of their love affair with drugs and disobedience starting as altar boys and (ending never) leading to a life of tracksuits, raves, and raids. Dealing, collecting benefits, avoiding the sectarian peelers. Or not avoiding them.
Liam gets arrested while on MDMA and refuses to speak English. Enter music and Irish language teacher JJ to act as an interpreter. JJ doesn’t want to be there but was encouraged by his activist girlfriend Caitlin (Fionnuala Flaherty) to be there to help someone “probably taking a principled stand” protesting for the upcoming Irish Language Act.
Liam gives precisely no fucks about whatever has been happening in terms of the Irish Language Act, he just wants to screw with the peelers. In an hilarious interrogation scene JJ discovers Liam’s writing and a sheet of acid in a notebook on officer is holding. They’re still looking for Naoise’s Da, Arló and the obsessive Detective Ellis (Josie Walker) figures Liam has insider information.
Arló is alive but still in hiding. Delores has become a depressed recluse and Naoise is pretty pissed at his decade absent Dad. “What do you call a Próvai who’s become a yoga instructor? Bobby Sandals.” (A particularly clever piece of writing as Fassbender’s big breakthrough role was as Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s Hunger). Arló wants a memorial service and for Naoise to make something of himself. Maybe Arló could start giving a shit about something other than “the cause” or whatever is left of it and look after his family. The two are at an impasse.
Also at an impasse is JJ when trying to inspire students to embrace Gaeilge with outmoded textbooks and teen indifference. What he read in Liam’s notebook has him inspired. JJ bumps into Liam on his “Cross Country community club fun run” – he stole a baton from an Orange Man Marching Band – and along with Naoise, JJ’s garage studio, and more drugs than any human can rightly withstand, Kneecap are born.
The Irish language, JJ explains, is like the last Dodo. Someone has to break through the glass to set it free and Naoise now Móglaí Bap and Liam now Mo Chara might just be the Fenian c*nts who can make it happen. That is if they can get their collective acts into gear, avoid the peelers, find a way around the Radical Republicans Against Drugs, and remember which pocket has the cocaine in it and which one has the ketamine.
Peppiatt barely gives the audience a second to breathe with the hectic pacing and dizzying visuals – and the ride is spectacular. There are times it’s hard to tell Naoise and Liam apart because they are layered over each other finishing each other’s sentences like they do on their tracks. Ryan Kernaghan’s camera is as inebriated or excited as its subjects. Francis Taaffe and Nicola Moroney’s production and art design denotes a West Belfast Gaeltacht Quarter covered in street art displaying luminaries of equality and freedom such as Frederick Douglass. Akin to Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, and the newly christened DJ Próvai – the city is a place where people refused to be crushed and knows itself through rich tradition and the spirit of resilience.
The absolute genius of Kneeecap is how it seems it distinctly does not give a fuck about anything but rebellious hedonism but is beautifully earnest in its message about the importance of self-definition. Georgia (Jessica Reynolds) Liam’s protestant girlfriend – and coincidentally Detective Ellis’ niece, says she wants to see a world where orange and green are mixed. Where a language that was suppressed survived because “people refused to stop fucking speaking it,” and can have ambassadors in the form of political and community activists like Caitlin and a hip hop band using Gaeilge to speak about pride in being low-life scum and sticking their middle finger up propriety.
Kneecap is the craic – it’s brave, bold, ridiculous, hilarious, absurd, and relentless. It’s also extremely important for all its irreverence. Peppiatt, and co-screenwriters the three miscreants of Kneecap are no fans of the English, the Monarchy, or the years of violent suppression which linger beyond The Troubles. The Arló Ó Cairealláin who kept blowing up Loyalist targets post Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta and Detective Ellis whose hatred for Republicans and Féinians are stuck in a loop where they’re fighting shadow wars. It’s a heightened reality in the film but one that suggests if people don’t calm their tits, the peelers are a step away from being the sectarian RUC again and Radical Republicans are back to killing their own if they don’t adhere to the rules they set out. “Maybe not firing the bullet should be the bullet,” Liam says.
Gaeilge was only recognised as an official language in Northern Ireland in 2022. “A country without a language is only half a country.” Rich Peppiatt, Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, and DJ Próvai who are all credited on the screenplay keep the anti-establishment vibe strong and vulgar, but they mean it when they say, “Stories are built from language, Nations are built through stories.”
Kneecap is fecking fantastic and searingly smart. It certainly should come with a warning of “Do Not Try This at Home” for some of its content, but learning one of the many dying indigenous languages around the world via wicked beats is gleefully encouraged. A breakneck blast of the best kind of rebellion – music.
Director: Rich Peppiatt
Cast: Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvai
Writers: Rich Peppiatt, Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvai
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