Kneecap - English subtitled
Riotously entertaining comedy about an anarchic Northern Irish hip hop trio who rap in their mother tongue. Trainspotting meets School of Rock in a rebellious film in which the band members play themselves.
We first meet the members of Belfast rap group Kneecap in the 2010s as drug-selling besties. More importantly, they’re staunch patriots who speak Irish as an act of cultural maintenance, and in defiance of British imperialism. When nerdy music teacher JJ Ó Dochartaigh enters the scene, he encourages the lads to turn their notebook scribblings into highly charged polemical rap songs (and becomes their DJ). What follows is a rowdy and cheerfully rude showbiz story following the trio through drug-hazed nights and clear-eyed days, as their music begins to impact the broader community while inevitably angering authorities.
In this pseudo-biography of the band Kneecap, Peppiatt shows through fast-paced editing, coarse language, and exuberant humour how the ‘generation cease-fire’ - the generation after Northern Ireland's 1998 peace deal - continues to resist British influences. The trio's infectious raps shift the struggle from extremist violence to pop culture.