What better way to immerse yourself in the Irish language than through the medium of rap? At the Sundance film festival in January, audiences were treated to the latest export from Ireland, Kneecap. It got its UK premiere through SFFL (Sundance Film Festival London) this week, and is set to be distributed in August by Sony Pictures Classics internationally, with Wildcard handling Ireland. This rebellious, quirky and contemporary film as Gaeilge is set to charm audiences across the world.
In a post-Good Friday Agreement Belfast, the next generation of Northern Ireland youths are finding their place in the world, with rebellion, disenchantment and anti-establishment baked into them. ‘The Troubles?’ one of the main characters asks against the backdrop of bombs going off, ‘I’ve got f-ing troubles.’ The film follows a real life rap group called Kneecap, charting their rise in to fame as Republican rappers. Known for courting attention, (the name Kneecap even is derived from the well-known form of intimidation of shooting someone in the knee to signify a warning to them and their community), the group are basically made for the limelight, with their recent Late Late Show appearance showing how quick and witty they really are: ‘We want to marry Irish and Northern Ireland in holy matrimony.’ ‘That’s some coupling,’ said the host Patrick Kielty. ‘It’s explosive, alright.’
The band’s origin story follows their real life beginnings of when they got involved in the Irish Language Act March in Northern Ireland when protestors called for the Irish language to have equal status to English. One of the band members, Móglaí Bap and his friend had spray painted the Irish word for ‘rights’ (cearta) in public areas, for which his friend was arrested and would only speak Irish to the police. This would spurn the rap trio on to write their first single, ‘Cearta’, essentially pioneering a creative form of political defiance through rap.
The film is directed superbly by Rich Peppiat, and its incredible that this is considered an independent film because no shot looks anaemic, and everything is captured creatively with a gritty and modern feel – something that the Irish language has always lacked in pop culture. The group’s flare for humour and troublemaking spilled effortlessly into the script, and considering none of them are professional actors the result is extraordinary. The biggest thorn in my side? Michael Fassbender’s character was the only one that edged on parody, purely because you didn’t know if he was playing it straight or not – and not in a good way. The side story of Fassbender as Moglaí Bap’s runaway father (but believed to be dead) as an F you to the British government, while he actually runs a yoga retreat in plain sight and his son and wife still know he’s alive (?) – does not work. But in all honesty the charm and the wit makes up for this that it’s all forgotten about.
And how did such a unique film come to be? This creative and contemporary approach to an anti-establishment practice was evidence enough to grab the attention of film producers. It was financially backed by the likes of Screen Ireland, TG4, BBC Northern Ireland. Despite the words ‘BRITS OUT’ being plastered on someone’s arse for most of the movie it was incredibly also funded by the British public from National Lottery Funds via the BFI (British Film Institute).
The Q&A was just was chaotic as the film, and because the film is based on real people it’s unique that those very characters end up talking to the audience straight after. The British director Rich Peppiat (who lives in Belfast himself) has evidently built a strong rapport with the lads, with the beginning of the relationship starting when he spoke to the group in their language – not Irish, he asked them out for a pint. When he explains his sacriligeous origin story by Kneecap standards of being ‘born in England,’ Mo Chara followed this with a very honest ‘bleh’ into the microphone. The masked DJ Provey somehow brought up his granny who ‘birthed 17 children,’ but she died-,’ and before you know it Mo Chara chips in with ‘-of exhaustion,’ Questions are asked but as the microphone gets passed around everyone quickly realizes it’s not a normal Q&A, with the cast burping into the mics, two thirds of Kneecap heckling their own director and interrupting everything the moderator said (one of the questions from the audience was ‘How did you manage to direct this lot?’). But the crowd lapped it up because it all just underscored what they’d just seen. Kneecap ended the Q&A with the words of an Irish literary great, ‘live, laugh love – James Joyce.’
FILM FOR THOUGHT 