The chances that you have heard of the Irish rap group Kneecap are slim. And yet, groups from here, such as Harmonium, Loco Locass and Les Cowboys Fringants, would not deny a kinship with its cultural and political contribution.
Founded in 2017 in Belfast, Kneecap are a trio formed by two childhood friends, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh (aka Moglai Bap) and Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Mo Chara), son of an Irish Republican Army activist presumed dead for years, as well as a jaded music teacher, JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí).
His name, Kneecap [rotule]refers to a practice of the Irish Republican Army which consisted of punishing drug dealers with a bullet in the knee during the Northern Ireland conflict. The trio, with their rebellious attitude on stage, their demands for the decriminalization of drug possession and their refusal to speak English, quickly aroused controversy and the grumbling of the police. In return, their passion quickly made them a figurehead of a large movement fighting to protect the Irish language from extinction.
Director Rich Peppiatt was walking into a Belfast bar when he first heard Kneecap’s bubbling rhythms. “I was impressed by their music and their stage presence, which reminded me of a young Rage Against the Machine,” he told The Daily Beast in an interview with Duty. Sometimes I feel like music has become manufactured and overly cautious. Suddenly here I was, standing in front of three guys who weren’t afraid to say what they wanted to say and do what they wanted to do, from throwing bags of fake cocaine into the crowd to getting ‘Brits Out’ tattooed on their behinds. Their punk attitude appealed to me.”
After doing some research, the filmmaker quickly realized that the band’s growing popularity was not unrelated to a vibrant, youthful unity movement that was growing in Belfast. “Millions of people didn’t know that there was a fight going on to revive the presence of the Irish language. If, through Kneecap, I could put my camera where no one had done it before, I had to try by all means.”
From then on, all that was left was to convince the three rappers to join the adventure. An undertaking that required a few months of discussions… and a few pints of Guinness. “At first, we were mostly hesitant because of his British origins,” says JJ Ó Dochartaigh. “But, over drinks, we discovered a very creative man, very serious in his vision, and who was very open to ideas and discussion. After three months, we decided to let him into our world.” “His vision of the film really matched the way our brains work. He wanted to establish a sustained rhythm and transfer the noisy and hyperactive effect of our music to the screen,” adds Naoise Ó Cairealláin.
In Kneecapthe three rappers play themselves: a decision that made sense, according to Rich Peppiatt. “The biopic has been done and remade to the point of nausea. Usually it’s about people who are dead or who are really at the end of their careers. Making a biopic “To do it on a band that hadn’t really released an album yet, that hadn’t signed a record deal yet, that sang in a language that almost no one else spoke, it bordered on the illogical. That’s exactly why we wanted to do it. In that context, it would have been strange to ask someone to play a person unknown to most of the audience.”
Carefully preparing for chaos
Rich Peppiatt immersed himself completely in his subject’s musical work to develop his film. “Usually, the soundtrack comes quite late in the process, but this time, it was my starting material. I’ve never started a project with such a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve. I wanted the energy of the band to be reflected, for it to be chaotic, for it to move in all directions. To achieve my ambition, I worked a lot up front, drew an extremely precise storyboard, where each transition was planned and thought out. If the rendering is punk and anarchic, behind the scenes, everything was extremely planned and methodical.”
The film’s pre-production was not without its challenges. In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed filming, history was made as Kneecap’s popularity grew and the movement to preserve the Irish language gained momentum. In 2022, the United Kingdom Parliament passed the Identity and Language Act, which officially recognized the status of the Irish language in Northern Ireland and the importance of its protection.
“So the film really captures a moment in history. It reinforced our belief that we were doing the right thing by singing in Irish, which is certainly not the most financially viable choice. But in terms of values and inner richness, it gave us an identity and a sense of belonging. Hopefully, more and more people understand the importance of culture and how difficult it is to revive ones that are disappearing. I hope that more communities will advocate for the recovery of their languages. The more diversity there is in the world, the healthier it is,” says Naoise Ó Cairealláin.
“One of the things we didn’t anticipate, and that never ceases to amaze me, is the number of people who identify with the film, from Indigenous people to Catalans, to maybe Quebecers. It’s extraordinary that so many people find their voice in our little film,” concludes Rich Peppiatt.