AILSA CHANG, HOST:
One of the more quirky comedies at this year's Sundance Film Festival was a biopic about a hip-hop group...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMACH ANOCHT")
KNEECAP: (Singing in Irish).
CHANG: ...An Irish-language hip-hop group called Kneecap. Critic Bob Mondello says the film "Kneecap" is profane, political and very funny.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Let's begin where the film does.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
LIAM OG O HANNAIDH: (As himself) Do you know what? Every [expletive] story about Belfast starts like this.
MONDELLO: That's Liam speaking as the screen fills with car bombs exploding.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
O HANNAIDH: (As himself) But not this one. This is the start, with my best mate, Naoise...
(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)
O HANNAIDH: (As himself) ...When he was a wee baby.
MONDELLO: We're in the woods, watching Liam's future bandmate, Naoise, being baptized at a secret mass.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
O HANNAIDH: (As himself) It was a tribute to the Irish Catholics who, just a few generations ago, gave the middle finger to the British rule by sneaking here to practice their own religion and speak their own language.
MONDELLO: And it was interrupted by a police helicopter. Dad, a high-ranking member of the Irish Republican Army, played by Michael Fassbender, will spend much of the film presumed dead by the authorities and even by his wife. But at first, we see him as a devoted, ever-political dad.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
MICHAEL FASSBENDER: (As Arlo O Caireallain) A wee operation for yous - I want you to sit down tonight and watch an American Western on the telly. But here's the thing - I want you to watch it from the Indians' point of view. And remember...
MONDELLO: He continues in Gaelic.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
FASSBENDER: (As Arlo O Caireallain, speaking Gaelic).
MONDELLO: Every word of Irish spoken...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (As characters, speaking Gaelic).
MONDELLO: ...Is a bullet fired for Irish freedom. Liam and Naoise grow up properly rebellious - hell-raisers and drug dealers, forever in trouble with the police - and always claiming not to understand English. That's how Liam meets JJ, a high-school music teacher and Irish language activist acting as a jailhouse translator. JJ's startled to recognize when the interrogator hands him Liam's notebook...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
JOSIE WALKER: (As Detective Ellis) What's this mean?
MONDELLO: ...What look suspiciously like Irish rap lyrics.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
JJ O DOCHARTAIGH: (As himself) I got up this morning, and at the end of the day, before I leave the bed, a spliff and a cup of tea.
MONDELLO: JJ pockets the notebook and, at home, puts beats to the words. Then he drags the lads to his studio, apologizing that it's no "Abbey Road."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
O DOCHARTAIGH: (As himself) It ain't "Abbey Road," eh?
O HANNAIDH: (As himself) Abbey what?
MONDELLO: They also have no idea what a CD is, but they like his beats, and being drug dealers can easily fuel all-night session work.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMACH ANOCHT")
KNEECAP: (Singing in Irish).
MONDELLO: Their evening proves substantially more productive than JJ's music classes at school.
(SOUNDBITE OF INSTRUMENTS PLAYING OFF-KEY)
MONDELLO: And soon they're plotting how to perform onstage. JJ doesn't want to get fired, so as DJ Provai, he goes incognito behind a green, white and orange ski mask, the colors of the Irish flag. And it turns out there are a lot of Irish-speaking hip-hop fans.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMACH ANOCHT")
KNEECAP: (Singing in Irish).
MONDELLO: Now, the presence of well-known actor Michael Fassbender in "Kneecap" is a clever bit of misdirection by filmmaker Richard Peppiatt. It suggests a polished biopic ensemble, yes? But Kneecap, though their story is fictionalized here, is a real band, and Liam, Naoise and JJ are it, all playing themselves entirely professionally through sex scenes, police beatings and drug-fueled jam sessions. Imagine a cross between The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" and an Irish "Trainspotting" with a bit of politics thrown in.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KNEECAP")
O HANNAIDH: (As himself) They called our generation the cease-fire babies. Maybe they were right. Maybe we were only ever going to be the moment after the moment.
MONDELLO: The film is pointed, raunchy and often a riot, a glorious ride steeped in the anger of a people who had to fight to keep their own language. The guys in "Kneecap" channel the fury of the troubled Ireland they inherited while unleashing the softer power of their own pop culture revolution, change without casualties. Every lyric of Irish sung, a bullet fired for Irish freedom. I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "H.O.O.D.")
KNEECAP: (Singing) I'm a H, double-O, D. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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