David R. Walker

Kneecap

Director: Rich Peppiatt

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Josie Walker, Jessica Reynolds, Simone Kirby, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, DJ Próvaí

Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Language: Irish with English Subtitles

Festivals: European Film Festival / Sundance Film Festival / South by South West Film Festival

Warning: This film has rude lyrics and portrays copious amounts of drug taking.

Director Rich Peppiatt’s first full length narrative film Kneecap which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and is an official entry for Ireland’s submission for Best Foreign Language film at the 2025 Oscars is certainly worth seeing. A frenetic film about the rise of the influential and detrimental Irish hip hop band Kneecap in which the band members play themselves in this fast paced quirky film about the rise of Irish hip hop on the streets of Belfast and is almost like Trainspotting but set in Northern Ireland.

Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, DJ Próvaí all play themselves as the tyrannical trio who preach the significance of hip hop in the Irish language, a form of subversive behaviour against the British and general normative society.

Luckily the film’s band members are supported by screen actors including a superb appearance by Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, Steve Jobs) as Arlo O Cairealláin, the mysterious father of Naoise. Simone Kirby plays the agoraphobic mother of Naoise, Dolores Ó Cairealláin who rallies her son’s interest through the hairdressing network in Belfast.

Set in West Belfast in the later 2010’s, Kneecap is an explosive and foul-mouthed portrayal of renegade lads whose drug induced rise to fame helped with huge doses of MDMA, ketamine along with other snorting substances.

Kneecap is anti-establishment and captured the zeitgeist of a generation of young Irish youths who wanted to stamp their own Irish identity on a country which is effectively still being governed by England.

Besides the misbehaviour and the rude lyrics, Kneecap is about the authentic rap music, which was always a style of music which was subversive, counter-culture and aimed at the underdog ready to attract the lunatic fringe.

With great performances by all the bandmembers and a stunning supporting role by Fassbender who is channelling all the Irish side of his German-Irish heritage, Kneecap is an insanely entertaining film about the rise of Irish language hip hop, the politicization of indigenous languages and how fame often immortalizes the miscreants of society.

Rich Peppiatt’s thoroughly entertaining and a visually impressive film, hugely inspired by Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Kneecap is a must see film. Energetic and absolutely boisterous, Kneecap gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing.

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