Kneecap
Directed by Rich Peppiatt
Featuring Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvai, Michael Fassbender
Music by Michael "Mikey J" Asante
In cinemas now
Kneecap, directed by Rich Peppiatt, is a semi-autobiographical film about the West Belfast rap/hip-hop trio of the same name who are taking their native Gaelic to audiences worldwide in a fierce, wild, live tour on the back of their just-released album Fine Art. The group will be touring Australia in 2025.
Subtitles translate the lyrics and dialogue into English, which allows the audience to experience the group’s explosive songs about sex, drugs, rock n roll and a canny analysis and satire of Irish politics and social issues, post-Troubles.
Generational post-traumatic stress is front and centre and seems to be the root-cause of the band members’ raucous self-medicating, defiance and gallows humour, which leavens the grim reality of impoverished and socially-torn life in the six counties of British-ruled “Northern Ireland”.
The film is violent and bloody, with scenes that will make you wince and its title refers to the crippling punishment meted out by paramilitaries in wartime Ireland. This movie, like the group, aims to shock. It’s not for the faint-hearted. But the shock is a most valuable one, a painful lesson to be learned.
Actor Michael Fassbender convincingly weaves his portrayal of a tough, elder rebel combatant father-figure — who jokingly refers to himself as “Bobby Sandals”. The three vulnerably-defiant “hooligans” of the group are Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Próvai (who wears a balaclava in the colours of the Irish flag).
The balaclavas are there for a reason and the “dissies” (dissident paramilitaries) get a well-deserved, lethal ribbing. Even Gerry Adams gets a startling guest spot in the film.
If Spike Lee had grown up in West Belfast, he would have made this movie — it is truly an Irish Do The Right Thing.
[See the trailer here.]