Kneecap18

Of the 80,000 native Irish speakers, 6,000 live in the North of Ireland and three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This is the real-life story of how this anarchic Belfast trio became the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save and reinvigorate their mother tongue.

Rich Peppiatt’s raucous and infectious debut feature is a heightened tale of Kneecap’s origin story. Set in post-troubles Belfast, childhood best friends Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh and Naoise Ó Cairealláin live debaucherously, selling drugs and partying to pass the time, but when they inadvertently cross paths with high school teacher JJ Ó Dochartaigh, things begin down a path none of them saw coming. At the same time, a civil rights movement, lead by JJ’s partner, is fighting for the right to have the Irish language instated as an official language of Northern Ireland. With this political backdrop, JJ sees an opportunity to use music to further the cause. Following in the footsteps of Naoise’s father (played by Michael Fassbinder), an IRA stalwart who instilled in them the power of language and culture, the three of them form Kneecap, a politically-charged, anti-establishment rap trio who rap in Irish and embody the spirit of defiance.