Kneecap

First Love and Anarchy festival film for me this year, a part of the "Spotlight Selection". And I can see why. I think this film will easily go into the top list of films I've seen in recent years.

Telling the story of "Kneecap" [1], a real world hip-hop trio who rhyme in a mixture of Irish and English, acted by the band members, but in a fictional way. Based on Wikipedia there are many elements of the film that borrow from their real world journey. Whether this includes the outlandish drug use or being in the middle of republican militants and British imperialist police forces I can't say based on the article. However, it is all put together really well, conveying the most important message of all: fuck both of them. Humour is a central building block while tackling a difficult subject.

The Irish language and the right to use it is a central carrying theme through the film. Thanks to British imperialism the language only received official status in Northern Ireland in 2022. The film ends with a sad reminder that every 40 days an indigenous language dies [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kneecap_(band)
[2] https://www.activesustainability.com/climate-change/climate-change-languages/

#hiff #films #music #languages #irish