In post-troubles Belfast, the riotous rap trio KNEECAP emerges, setting the stage for the Irish language’s resurgence against the establishment. Self-proclaimed ‘low life scum’ Liam Óg and Naoise, along with school teacher JJ, become a political symbol and the defiant voice of Ireland’s restless youth. As they struggle to make their mark on the world, and family and relationship pressures threaten to pull the plug on their dreams, the trio weave a narrative that transcends music. A true-life fable about man’s intrinsic urge for identity, the allure of drugs and a passion for life, KNEECAP is a thrilling ride pulsating with hip-hop beats.
KNEECAP was the winner of the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award earlier this year and has just had wildly successful screenings at the recent Sydney Film Festival. Directed by up-and-coming British director Rich Peppiatt (One Rogue Reporter), KNEECAP stars the real-life Irish hip-hop trio, Liam Óg ÓhAnnaidh (Mo Chara), Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap), and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí).
As Kneecap makes it way into Australian cinemas on August 29, after it’s incredibly successful festival run, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the film’s co-writer and director, Rich Peppiatt, about finding the film’s rhythm, telling a different type of Northern Irish story, and the incredible processes behind filming some of the film’s most iconic shots!
Nick: Firstly, I want to say that I love this film, man. I watched it at 6 o’clock in the morning a couple of days ago, and it perked me up. I had energy all day because of this film! Secondly, I don’t think I’ve heard a reference to The Wombles in maybe, 20 years?
Rich Peppiatt: [laughs] I’m glad you liked that! There’s certain jokes in a script that are mainly for you rather than anyone else. And that was one that makes me chuckle. It’s fun. Like, to this day, it still makes me laugh – druggie Wombles.
I mean, there’s been people – like, half the time, you get an absolute freaking silence at it. But there’s a small clique of people, and that’s who that joke’s for!
Nick: Well, I’m glad to be a part of that group. But I’m excited to break down Kneecap with you, and I want to start with having a film that feels so intentionally set in a post-the Troubles Northern Island but has more of an uplifting approach to the narrative. I’m curious to know whether it was a conscious decision, after meeting with the band, to have a more positive spin on a film set in the Northern Irish culture?
Rich Peppiatt: I think that there is a tendency in Irish films to look backwards, particularly Irish language film. There’s never been a film, in the Irish language, that was modern and gritty and urban. I think generally they can be a bit dour, and focusing on The Troubles, and things like that.
When, you know, there’s a whole generation who were born after that finished, and I don’t necessarily feel there was anything that represented their lived experience on screen. We have a line in the film that calls them “the generation after the generation”.
Sometimes, everything they do is always compared to something they were never a part of. It’s a generation that’s having difficulties because a lot of the effects of The Troubles still exist here, and that’s playing out in terms of young people… there’s a lot of drug abuse. There’s a very high suicide rate. Our suicide rate here in the North is well beyond the average. This is idea of intergenerational trauma is something that we’re very conscious of, and they were all issues we wanted to explore.
When I met Kneecap, I just felt like they were a band who were exploring that through their music already, in a way that they were saying things other people hadn’t dared to say, and I found that very interesting. I found the controversy they created very interesting. And I think that controversy is often quite a good vehicle to open up discussions. Whether you like what someone’s saying or not, just by the fact they’re saying it, can start a conversation that wasn’t happening before. And, so, I was kind of quite keen to find how I could take their energy and the tone of what they do, and put it on screen, not just as music.
Nick: Rhythm is one of the foundations of hip-hop, and music in general. And the rhythm of language, especially the Irish language like DJ Provai says, goes hand in hand with rapping, and that’s where so much of that tone and energy lies. Was there a rhythm to filmmaking and directing that you discovered making this film?
Rich Peppiatt: I mean, I think when you’ve got tone, it’s not something that discussed in a script and when making the film, but it’s one of the most important aspects of a film. So, many films just miss slightly because they haven’t quite nailed their tone or know what they are.
I was lucky that when you’re starting off with music — and often in film, music is a thing that comes after the fact. It’s something you sort of tack on. But to start a film where you have the music, gives you a very defined sense of what the tone is going to be.
You listen to Kneecap’s music, and you’re not going to have slow, long, hanging shot. It’s not going to be that film. It’s going to be quicky and jumpy. Which is very freeing as well, because it felt like creatively, you could kind of do whatever you wanted, because it was so anarchic, and they’re so anarchic.
I felt very lucky in the sense of finding that freedom to find the rhythm within the film at an early stage, and it allowed me to write the script with a rhythm and a tone in mind. It’s very jump, the narration coming in and out, fourth wall breaking. It’s a hot mess in the nicest way.
Nick: In the best way! You mentioned earlier about how music is usually something that can be tacked on at the end, but I feel like there was a very deliberate usage of The Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up during the Ranger chase scene. How did you land of using that song for that scene? And what is the process of deciding what songs of Kneecap’s you’re going to use, and what songs from other artists you’re going to use for the film?
Rich Peppiatt: I knew from an early stage there was going to be lots of Kneecap songs. It would be crazy not to have Kneecap songs in the majority of the film. But, yeah, in terms of The Prodigy, specifically that bridge scene was shot on the bridge that separates where I lived from where the band lived. So, I used to walk to their house to do writing sessions and whatever, and I remember one day walking across the bridge and thinking it had a nice cadence, I guess you’d call it.
You could do this really amazing Lawrence of Arabia shot on this bridge, and I was listening, at the time, to The Prodigy, and so I just had that in my head from that minute. I wanted to do a scene on this bridge, and this is the track that I want to use to do it. I just refused to let go of that from that point onwards.
It was a nightmare getting permissions to do it. It’s a main artery in Belfast, and also beneath that bridge is a very fervent Loyalist estate, you know? There was concerns if they found out we’re filming a Kneecap film, we would get murdered! So, we filmed on a Sunday morning at 6am on the basis that we thought all of the barbarians under the bridge would be asleep… or hungover! That was the thinking!
Nick: How many times did Mo [Chara] have to sprint across that bridge?
Rich Peppiatt: You know, Mo Chara, he can run. He wasn’t the one I had massive sympathy for, it was the poor extras. They signed up to get paid 150 quid or something for the day, and the advert said, “Light running included”.
We gave them these uniforms and the cheapest plastic shoes to wear, as well. And they’re having to sprint up and down this hill, like, full pelt, over and over again. I felt bad every time I went, “We need to do it again. It wasn’t quite right.” I mean, there was a couple of them who were throwing up. They were so knackered. It was brutal.
But the last take was the one we ended up using because there’s a bird that flies across the background in the shot. And it’s just perfectly framed against the mountains. I was like, “God is looking down on us this morning!” [laughs] It’s my favourite shot in the film.
Nick: Well, for me, there’s two shots that stick out that I loved. The shot of the coke going up the noise, and the shot of DJ Provai putting the balaclava on and looking into the mirror. I’m curious to know how you pulled those shots off, because they’re incredible!
Rich Peppiatt: So, I saw a review of the film that said, “Finally, a film about drugs made by people who actually to have taken some”. [laughs] That’s the only review I need!
The coke up the nose shot is a probe lens put down a Henry Hoover. So, we got a Henry Hoover, and glued some hairs in there, and then basically put the lens down the Herny Hoover, and I had to shine a light down there as well. Then we just got some fucking white powder and just hoovered it! And it worked.
I’m glad you picked that shot out, because that was one we didn’t get time to shoot during the production. And then I had to beg, borrow and steal people to do the shot. People turned up on their own time to come meet me and get it in the bag!
In terms of the mirror shot, that’s my homage to La Haine. The first time I saw that shot, I could not work out for the love of money where the camera was. It was a film that I love, and every time I watched it, I didn’t understand where the camera is here. It doesn’t make sense.
And then when I was working with my DOP, Ryan Kernaghan and planning, like, 1000 storyboards for this film, I said, “Look I’ve got this idea, but I don’t know how to pull it off”. And he was like, “This is how I think they do it… it’s not a mirror at all! It’s a hole that looks like a mirror”.
So, we built a set behind the set. Right through the mirror hole is a mirror set. Then we had to choreograph the camera’s movements to the person’s movement. If they lean left, the camera has to lean to match.
And the end of that scene was a shot that sort of split the room a bit, but I was determined to keep it. We go to all this effort to create this illusion of him pulling his balaclava on in the mirror, but then I allowed him to just walk off and leave the balaclava on the camera there. It just made me chuckle, the idea to go to all that effort to create an illusion, and then in the last shot, just completely take the legs out of it [laughs].
Nick: That matches the anarchic feeling of the whole film, for sure! Rich, I want to wrap on this question because I loved the final monologue of this film about how words are bullets. It was incredibly powerful. But there was a line that hit me more personally about “finding your velocity”. I think that’s a powerful statement for any artist who has something genuine to say. So, I’m curious to know at what point in your career did you find your velocity?
Rich Peppiatt: About six months ago, I think! But, no, I mean, I’ve had a storied career. I’ve done different things. Being a filmmaker… I mean, I’ve always wanted to writer. Script writing was my first love, even when I was a journalist.
But for me, it’s just being on set and working. It’s the process of making a film, of being able to immerse yourself into something fully for so long. I feel very privileged to get to do that. I mean, it’s been five years where I’ve basically had to wake up everyday, and the first thing I think about is Kneecap, and the last thing I think about is Kneecap.
I’m one of those people who if I’m doing something, I throw myself into it 100%, and I just really enjoy that. I enjoy being able to focus all my energy on one thing and just try to make it as good as I can possible and obsess over every little detail of it. And I got to do that with Kneecap. I’m really proud and gratified that the focus has sort of paid off.
The film resonates with people. They’re enjoying it. And it’s nice to finally have it out there. We finished shooting the film over a year ago now, and you’re still waiting for it to sort of hit cinemas, and for people to be able to enjoy it, and we’re getting there now. But I’m ready to move on to the next thing.
Thank you to Rich for his time, and to Madman Films and NixCo PR for organising the interview! Kneecap is in Australian cinemas August 29.
