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July 26, 2024Interview: Kneecap’s Móglaí Bap & DJ Próvai on Bringing Their Debut Feature Film to the World
July 30, 2024Who do you hire to play the members of a hip-hop group who have managed to attract international attention for their boundary-breaking music? Finding the right actors can be tough, and while many musician mimicries have won acclaim throughout cinematic history, there’s nothing quite like the original model. Director Rich Peppiatt makes a bold gamble that furiously pays off with Kneecap, the larger-than-life story of the three passionate defenders of the Irish language.
Kneecap begins with JJ (JJ Ó Dochartaigh) being called in to help interpret when Liam Óg (Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh) and Naoise (Naoise Ó Cairealláin) are arrested and claim to only speak Irish, not English. As a schoolteacher, JJ not only tries to educate the next generation about this important and all-too-unknown language, but to lobby for it to be adopted as an official language of his country. He soon pivots his efforts into something completely unexpected: helping these young musicians spread their love of the Irish language through their highly political and highly addicting music.
This is a playful and energetic movie, one that taps into the ferocity of its three protagonists, who all play versions of themselves. Known on the stage as DJ Próvai, Mo Chara, and Móglaí Bap, respectively, they have a passion for the words they shout and sing. This film charts their unlikely rise as a countercultural force, something that those who didn’t think they could find a community like this are able to latch onto and exponentially propel to wider audiences. It’s an uphill battle, to be sure, but one that they’re very eager to fight to make their mark.
While Kneecap may have achieved a startling popularity with Irish audiences and within the music world, the group will likely be relatively unknown to the average moviegoer. To help with that sense of anonymity, this film casts Michael Fassbender as the absent father of one of its group’s members, appearing almost like a specter, never quite there but such a key piece of the mythology of who he is and how he treats his reverence for a language most have told him to forget. Fassbender’s presence may remind of the 2014 film Frank, also music-adjacent but radically different, far more objectively strange with Fassbender also unseen as the man underneath a giant papier-mâché head.
As expected, Kneecap is at its most formidable when it features the music that has made its singers so famous – and infamous. The lyrics splash across the screen to further animate their power, and the natural way in which Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap, and later DJ Próvai, spew them off demonstrates a deep connection with this way of speaking that has been presented by those who wish to quash it out of existence as unpleasant and somehow dangerous. That’s a concept that anyone from around the world, even far from Ireland, can relate to: the suppression of historic culture for the alleged goal of building a cohesive community devoid of any diversity.
What Kneecap is sure to do is to entice more fans to stick around its music scene after the credits roll, offering a deeply entertaining story whose strict fidelity to the true origins of this group need not be proven for it to be certifiably effective. 105 minutes is more than enough time for this film to establish the world its three protagonists live in and extend an undeniable invitation to audiences to become immersed. Music devotees will surely appreciate the experience while those less attuned to being in those surroundings will likely also find themselves overwhelmed with an appeal to try something different and give this inarguably creative force a chance.
Movie Rating: 8/10
Awards Buzz: This film has already had a strong start at film festivals and is in the hands of Sony Pictures Classics for its theatrical run in the United States. What awards this film might qualify for could still be a question, but expect plenty of positive praise and some celebratory consideration given how well it’s been received thus far.