“Kneecap” - Film Review
As long as humans have existed, we have found ways to convey information to one another. Our languages create connection, unity, and pride, and they’re a fragile means of preserving culture, and one that requires a conscious effort from at least two people. Someone to speak and someone to understand.
According to National Geographic, a language dies every fourteen days, yet all around the world, the fight to keep languages alive is unfolding. Ireland is a prime example of people actively working to keep a dying means of communication from disappearing. Who would’ve predicted that an Irish-language hip-hop group would be leading the cause? Kneecap shows the rise of the rap group of the same name as they make waves in the movement for the preservation of the Irish language.
courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Liam Ó Hannaidh and Naoise Ó Cairealláin are part of the Ceasefire Generation, growing up in Belfast in the 2010s. They were taught to speak Irish by Naoise’s father (Michael Fassbender). He was an ex-republican paramilitary member who faked his own death to avoid being arrested by British police. One night, Liam is arrested at a party and refuses to speak English when he is being questioned. JJ Ó Dochartaigh, a teacher at an Irish-language immersion school, is called in to translate. JJ reads Liam’s notebook and finds rap lyrics scrawled across the pages. As someone who makes beats in his free time, JJ offers to help Liam and Naoise record their music. Together, they form Kneecap, partly as a means of introducing the Irish language to the younger generation and partly for the love of music. The real-life members of Kneecap (JJ, Liam, & Naoise) play themselves in what is each of their film debuts.
courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Kneecap is as much a love letter to the Irish language as it is a great take on the music biopic genre and the formation of this band. Those outside of Ireland who don’t listen to rap may be unfamiliar with the music of Kneecap, but the film does an excellent job of introducing the members as individuals and the group as a whole. In contrast to A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic that’s making waves this awards season, Kneecap provides context for the songs they’re writing. Viewers are transported to the mindset of these young men as they struggle to find a future in a country whose identity has been shrouded in British rule for decades. While A Complete Unknown isn’t interested in showing its audience what inspired “The Times They are a-Changin,” Kneecap immerses its viewers in the frantic, frenetic energy of JJ, Liam, and Naoise. It’s immediately apparent where the inspiration for “Sick In The Head” comes from for these guys.
“A country without a language is only half a nation.” A language is a tool of freedom of expression that oppressors try to suppress in the name of assimilation. There is power that comes from speech and communication. It’s this power that Kneecap, the band and the film, understand. Naoise’s dad repeats one sentiment throughout the movie. “Every word of Irish spoken is a bullet fired for Irish freedom." If that’s the case, Kneecap is a guns-blazing fight for Ireland’s past and its future.
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