KNEECAP’s Irish Language Film is Heading to Cannes
We’ve teamed up with Hennessy to showcase the homegrown acts we’re tipping to make big moves in 2023. Qbanaa, Curtisy, Lowkick, ENI, DeCarteret, and MOIO play The Complex, Dublin on Thursday 1 June. Tickets are free and can be booked here.
KNEECAP’s Irish Language Film is Heading to Cannes
Words: Dray Morgan
The Irish rap group are set to be portrayed in a new anti-establishment comedy.
Irish trio KNEECAP have wrapped filming on their newest project this month. Here they play a dramatised version of their lives in Belfast.
KNEECAP revealed that the film plot is not their “personal stories”, however, rather fictional stories “in the KNEECAP timeline”. Although the film is labelled as a comedy, it will be sure to touch on serious issues relating to Northern Ireland and Irish republicanism.
The pioneering artists who combine English and Irish lyricism to create a powerful social commentary, will have their performance first shown at the annual Cannes buyers’ showcase of UK films from 16-24 May. The showcase is specifically for up-and-coming directors with this being director Rich Peppiatt’s first live action feature length film.
Throughout March, KNEECAP encouraged fans on social media to attend free performances in Dundalk and Belfast. The three five hour-long performances will be used in the upcoming film. Other Scenes for the feature film have been shot across Belfast including Ardoyne, New Lodge and Madden’s Bar.
MIchael Fassbender, who rose to prominence after portraying Irish political activist Bobby Sands in the 2008 film Hunger, has also been seen on set and will feature in the movie.
Peppiatt was one of the recipients of the 2021 Mother Tongues Awards, a development initiative for projects at treatment or script stage, in which a story contains dialogue which is in a language other than English.
The showcase is being backed by the UK film financiers, the BFI, BBC Films and Film4 in addition to the British Council and the UK government’s GREAT campaign in addition to Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, TG4 and Northern Ireland Screen. It will be distributed through Curzon Cinemas, a British cinema chain focused on mostly art house filmography as well as Wildcard Distribution in Ireland.
Trevor Birney ,who has produced award-winning documentaries such as Bobby Sands: 66 Days and HBO’s Emmy-winning Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House of God, is also a collaborator and has production credits.
There is currently no official general release date for the project. The average time for a film’s general release after being exhibited at Cannes is just over nine months, so a release date in 2024 is not unlikely.
Elsewhere on District KNEECAP nominated as honorary patrons of Trinity’s University Philosophical Society
We’ve teamed up with Hennessy to showcase the homegrown acts we’re tipping to make big moves in 2023. Qbanaa, Curtisy, Lowkick, ENI, DeCarteret, and MOIO play The Complex, Dublin on Thursday 1 June. Tickets are free and can be booked here.
