Kneecap (2024)

I was in the midst of a lengthy vacation when the shortlist for the 10 categories that the Oscars release a shortlist for, and on the trip home I looked for movies on the plane that were on the list. I was so happy to see this was one of them--I like to try to see as many of the International Feature Films that I can get access to before we know what the final five that are chosen are, but am lucky if I can see a third of them. I feel like I am off to a good start this year. This is another movie set in Northern Ireland where the underlying message is the desire for independence from England. The vehicle of change is what is different--instead of revolutionary fervor mixed with guns and bombs, the thing that is inspiring young Irishmen in Northern Ireland is hip hop. Gaelic language hip hop. When Belfast schoolteacher JJ goes in his wife's stead to translate for a youth who professes not to speak English, he not only does the translating, he also spirits away his notebook--which includes a sheet of LSD hits as well as chronicling invovlement with drug trading. What he doesn't expect to find is that the Irish poetry that the young man writes translates very well to a hip hop beat, and he convinces them to go into his storage unit cum recording studio and see how it sounds. And then they go into public performances, and in the end, they get into a lot of trouble but that is mixed with a fair amount of success. Rapping in their native Irish language, KNEECAP fast become the unlikely figureheads of a Civil Rights movement to save their mother tongue. But the trio must first overcome police, paramilitaries and politicians trying to silence their defiant sound -- whilst their anarchic approach to life often makes them their own worst enemies. In this fiercely original sex, drugs and hip-hop biopic KNEECAP play themselves, laying down a global rallying cry for the defense of native cultures. It is fantastic.