Ireland, United Kingdom

Nominated for European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI 2024, European University Film Award 2024

When fate brings Belfast teacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed 'low life scum' Naoise and Liam Og, the needle drops on a hip-hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish, they lead a movement to save their mother tongue.

Directed by: Rich Peppiatt
Written by: Rich Peppiatt, JJ Ó Dochartaigh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh
Produced by: Patrick O'Neill, Trevor Birney, Jack Tarling
Cinematography: Ryan Kernaghan
Editing: Julian Ulrichs, Chris Gill
Production Design: Nicola Moroney
Costume Design: Zjena Glamocanin
Make-Up & Hair: Liz Boston
Original Score: Michael Asante
Sound: Chris Woodcock, Aza Hand
Visual Effects: Kevin Cahill
Casting: Carla Stronge
Cast: JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Provaí), Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap), Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh (Mo Chara), Michael Fassbender (Arlo), Josie Walker (Detective Ellis), Simone Kirby (Dolores), Jessica Reynolds (Georgia), Fionnuala Flaherty (Caitlin)

Statement of the director:
“I want to make a film about you, and I want you to play yourself in it”, is not a statement most of us hear everyday, but Naoise, Liam Óg and JJ took it remarkably in their stride. I walked away from our first meeting elated, but also with a question mark buzzing in my head – I hope they can bloody act. Admittedly, this wasn’t the type of nagging concern I might have made with the same proposal to a random on the street. Implicit in the term musical act is performance, and shifting from one medium to another is far shorter road than starting from scratch. And, of course, cinema has a long history of directors successfully casting non-actors in films, Chloe Zhao’s NOMADLAND being just one recent example. The quality this approach adds is raw authenticity, and if there is one single quality I feel is vital to transpose from Kneecap the band to KNEECAP the film it is exactly this. And that focus will influence the visual approach too – intimate documentary techniques chosen over anything too slickly cinematic. Basing scenes around real locations rather than overly stylised sets. That is not to say this is a point and shoot approach, more about putting performance centre stage, to keep distance between subject and audience as small as possible. I admire the work of the Safdie brothers in this respect, as a directing partnership whose storytelling also has a very overt sense of time and place. Their film GOOD TIME certainly has echoes of our film here, as would (the high watermark of gritty social realist drug drama) TRAINSPOTTING in its visual and tonal playfulness.
One of the beautiful peculiarities of having your core cast in place before the first word of a script has been written is that it gives the opportunity to start exploring how you will engage with them as performers, as well as visual ideas, early on. This year I have shot both a music video for their track ‘Guilty Conscience’ and material for a pre-production trailer of the film. This has allowed for some experimentation with colour schemes (neons have been a recurring feature) as well as getting a sense of them as characters in front of camera. This ability to feel out their performing style has fed into the scripting, and this synergy has been a really fulfilling experience. But what above all else it has achieved is build a mutual trust between myself and the band, which I know will be vital to extracting the maximum from their performances when the camera finally rolls. Part of this trust building has been my learning Irish (I’m currently on an invigorating diet of five lessons a week …) to properly be able to engage with the Irish speaking moments within the film. But I will still never grasp the nuance a native speaker would. And so that trust extends back from me as a director to Noaise, Liam Óg and JJ as performers to understand what we are collectively trying to achieve within each moment of the film and the project as a whole. I’m glad to say this connectivity of purpose exists palpably between us. Film is the great collaborative art form – perhaps no more so than in this film.

Production:
Wildcard
www.wildcarddistribution.com

World Sales/Press:
Charades
www.charades.eu