Kneecap
Kneecap
When fate brings Belfast teacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed "low life scum" Naoise and Liam Óg, 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.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 2, 2025
When low level drug dealer Liam gets nabbed by the peelers, he refuses to speak to them pretending to not understand English and professes to only speak the native Irish language. So the cops call a local man, JJ, a school music teacher that speaks the language, to help translate. When the JJ glimpses Liam’s notebook full of Irish prose and lyrics, he’s inspired by the possibilities of setting them to music and convinces Liam and his bud Naiose to record some tracks in his garage. It’s out of this that an Irish hip hop group is born. It’s a fictionalized version of the real-life trio, Kneecap’s, origin story. Think, Trainspotting meets A Hard Day’s Night. What begins as a raucous romp that occasionally confuses ketamine for cocaine turns into a political movement to preserve indigenous languages and culture. I was surprised by how much fun this was. It won the audience award at Sundance and honestly has really impressive performances from the trio. Highly recommend.