(2024, 18) BFI, Curzon Film, Mother Tongues Films, Fine Point Films
In 2019, two young men in West Belfast form a hip hop group with a music teacher and inadvertently become the figureheads of a movement to preserve the Irish language.
Starring: Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvai, Michael Fassbender
At its heart, Kneecap is an independent film about the importance of language in defining and preserving a cultural identity. If that sounds a bit preachy, you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s also a ridiculously entertaining mash-up of Trainspotting, Straight Outta Compton and Derry Girls, full of drugs, sex, hip hop, gangs and violence.
The film follows a fictionalised version of real-life Irish hip hop group Kneecap – Naoise (stage name Móglaí Bap), Liam Óg (Mo Chara) and JJ (DJ Próvai), all playing themselves – as they come together in the midst of a campaign supporting the Irish Language Act. They quickly become poster boys for the movement, but their lyrics (full of republican themes and inspired by their experiences of discrimination, drugs and poverty) rile up the police, a republican anti-drug gang, and the more conventional pro-Irish campaigners who worry that the group’s antics threaten to undermine their message.
Role of the tongue
As a film about the promotion of indigenous languages, Kneecap practices what it preaches. It’s the first Irish language film to premiere at Sundance Film Festival, with roughly half the dialogue being in Irish with English subtitles (occasionally animated, especially during the music scenes). The divide between Irish speakers and non-Irish speakers is given more prominence than the divide between Catholics and Protestants, or between republicans and unionists. The police are particularly stubborn English speakers (one angrily hissing “Do I look like I want to read f***ing subtitles?”). Their reliance on an interpreter to interview Liam brings him and JJ into contact, as well as creating one of the funniest scenes in the movie. By contrast, Naoise’s father – Michael Fassbender’s on-the-lam-and-maybe-dead Arló – drills into his son that every word spoken in Irish is a bullet fired for freedom. That captures a pervading message throughout the script that the words have more meaning than their mere translation. There is both a power and a responsibility in their heritage. “You might know the words,” Arló says at one point, “but you don’t understand the language.”
Craic-ing cast
There are a few established actors in the supporting cast. Fassbender is a quiet but impactful presence, engaged in a personal ‘operation’ that has put his ideology ahead of his family. Josie Walker’s Detective Ellis is an increasingly hissable villain, whose prejudices build to a shocking but all-too-believable climax. And Simone Kirby turns in a beautifully measured performance as Naoise’s agoraphobic mum Dolores. Her arc feels quite isolated from the central plot but watching it come to fruition is one of the film’s biggest joys. Special mention also goes to relative newcomer Jessica Reynolds as Liam Óg’s girlfriend Georgia, in one of the most brilliantly messed-up Romeo and Juliet style relationships ever put to film.
But the stars of the show are the titular central trio, who give such natural performances that it’s genuinely surprising they’re not professional actors. Their drug-fuelled antics could easily come across as hooliganism (especially in the wake of the recent far-right rioting across England – an unfortunate coincidence of timing that makes it slightly harder than usual to warm to the protagonists’ nationalist leanings). But it’s clear from the very first scene that they’re a product of their environment, and with that context in place it’s very hard to dislike them.
Liam has an easy, cheeky charisma that makes him come across as more of a wind-up merchant than anything remotely threatening. Naoise’s sub-plot with his parents is touching without becoming over-sentimental. And JJ – a music teacher and hobbyist DJ who knowingly puts his career on the line to support the young artists he’s discovered – somehow comes across as simultaneously in his element and in over his head.
Highs and lows
If I have one criticism, it’s the film’s portrayal of drugs. Most films and shows that centre on drug culture, like Trainspotting or Breaking Bad, take a balanced approach, showing both the highs and the lows of that lifestyle. But Kneecap never really concerns itself with the dangers of overdosing or addiction. The heroes take, sell, hand out and rap about a range of drugs as if they’re just a routine part of daily life (which to be fair, for them, they are). Meanwhile, all the characters who are against drugs are portrayed as violent hypocrites – arguably with the exception of Arló, but he’s not exactly meant to be a role model. It’s a refreshingly honest take, but perhaps not the most responsible. All of that said, it does produce some wonderfully surreal tripping scenes – the standout being a stop-motion segment in which the fourth wall is suddenly broken to criticise music streaming services. It’s a very minor gripe that only occurred to me in hindsight and never spoiled my enjoyment of the film in the moment.
Overall, I can honestly say this is one of the funniest films of the year so far, and its passionate promotion of the Irish language means there is some depth and pathos behind the comedy. This is most definitely molta.
Sam Edwards was invited to a press screening at The Mockingbird Cinema, Custard Factory, Digbeth. Kneecap is on general release in the UK from 23 August 2024.
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