By Ben Bright
@BrightFilmWorks
Salutations!!
This was a wild one, so I will go ahead and dive right in because there is a lot more here than just a hip-hop group from Belfast. Kneecap is an Irish Hip-Hop trio (The group’s members are Mo Chara, real name Liam Og O hAnnaidh, Moglai Bap, Naoise O Caireallain, and DJ Provai, JJ O Dochartaigh) and no that is not gibberish (that is exactly the way that their names are spelled) whose existence I was unaware of until this past month at the Oak Cliff Film Festival. They are from West Belfast, which is the area where the Northern Ireland Conflict, or “The Troubles” had its highest conflict-related death rate between the late 1960s and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
In a nutshell, because this is a movie review and not a history lesson, The Northern Ireland Conflict was a regional conflict that lasted approximately 30 years. The conflict was between paramilitary groups such as the Irish Republican Army, who wanted to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland. The Ulster Unionists, who wanted to keep Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom, both are listed as “designated terrorist organizations” by The United Nations Security Council Committee.
I have left out a lot of other details and participating parties. The violence was concentrated in Belfast specifically; but would occasionally spill over into Ireland, Great Britain, and even mainland Europe. “The Troubles” led to approximately 3,500 dead and 47,500 injured. 52% of which were civilians.
This story opens with Mo Chara and Moglai Bap (playing fictionalized versions of themselves) dealing drugs at a makeshift rave that gets broken up by the police. Resulting in Mo’s arrest while being held in an interrogation room, he is being chastised by the officer for not being able to speak or understand English (he does).
Proval (currently a music teacher, an Irish language activist, moonlights as an interpreter, as well as being an amateur Disc Jockey) is brought in to translate.
Meanwhile, Moglai meets with his dad, Arlo, masterfully played by Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, X-Men: First Class). Fassbender’s character is a high-ranking Irish Republican Army (IRA) member. Arlo left home when he was a boy and committed multiple crimes before faking his death. Arlo’s mantra is “Every word of Irish spoken is a bullet fired for Irish freedom” and encourages his son to continue that belief system.
Moglai, Mo, and DJ come together and form Kneecap (they choose the name because of the punishment used by the IRA where one is shot or clubbed in the knees) The group starts to build a following and as their popularity grows. This success begins to garner the attention of the authorities. The offshoot of the IRA called Republican Action Against Drugs commits threats and acts of brutal violence, intimidation, and vandalism.
Fundamentally this film is the “Get Rich or Die Trying” (50 Cent) with a Belfast setting. A fictionalized telling of how the group came together through hardships and their path to stardom. This story is a testament to the preservation of the Irish language in their hip-hop music. I loved the use of it in their dialogue. In the film, they made generous use of stylized subtitles and a few on-screen illustrations with doodles (you’ll know them when you see them).
I believe that one of the main takeaways from the film, aside from a “rise to success” story, is that the Irish language is its own and not the “Queen’s English” that most of us have been led to believe it is. The story delves into how the political process of removing the natural language from the Republic and how it causes strife. The film paints the picture that the language is a point of pride and national identity to parts of its population. Throughout the film. the language’s usefulness is pointed out.
Mo is chastised if not verbally abused by a police officer for using it.
The acting in the film by the members of the group (after having had extensive acting coaching by the production team) is surprisingly impressive for two rappers and one DJ who have never acted before. Sourced from The New York Times article “These Irish Rappers Know Thier Movie Will Make People Angry” written by Carlos Aguilar July 31, 2024.
Kneecap is a film that has it all and it is no wonder that it won the Audience Award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It’s a wild ride with drama, perseverance, family drama, social and political issues. It’s also wickedly funny and the group has some seriously dope beats and rhymes (I’ve been listening to them while writing this review).
Since this is a fictionalization, I don’t know what is truth or what is fiction but damn did they make it a great story and it turned me into an instant fan. See below for their official Instagram and the YouTube video for their track, C.E.A.R.T.A
