19 Feb 2025
Director: Rich Peppiatt
Ireland, UK
2024
105 min
An Irish rap group rails against British imperialism in Rich Peppiatt’s riotous, unruly comic docudrama Kneecap. An exhilarating origin story for the real-life Belfast-based band combining fact and a liberal helping of fiction, it’s enthusiastically performed by the rappers themselves backed by Irish actors including Michael Fassbender, Josie Walker and Simone Kirby. In West Belfast, 2019, two working-class drug dealers, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh team up with schoolteacher JJ Ó Dochartaigh to form a hip-hop group. Rapping in Irish Gaelic in line with their proud republican ethos, their verses combine richly textured lurid tales of sex and drugs with polemic and rebellion against authority, riling Irish radio and unionist politicians alike. Following the group through drug binges, cross-community mud-slinging and anarchic sell-out gigs, Kneecap is a rags-to-riches tale that’s steeped in local lore and humour drawn from the absurdity of history whilst also highlighting the ongoing battle to save the Irish language.
Sundance Film Festival 2024 – Winner NEXT Audience Award