‘Kneecap’ - Review
There’s a brief but striking moment in Kneecap where a Palestinian flag hangs from a balcony in West Belfast. It’s a quick scene, yet it perfectly encapsulates the film’s core—an homage to art and existence as forms of resistance.
Kneecap tells the story of an Irish-language rap group emerging in West Belfast in the early 2000s. In one scene, the group—Liam Óg, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, and JJ Ó Dochartaig—delivers rapid-fire Irish verses to an enthusiastic crowd. Their lyrics, laced with profanity, serve as acts of defiance, preserving and celebrating a unique cultural heritage. Like the Palestinian flag, the use of Irish here isn’t overtly political—it’s an expression of identity, of who they are. Yet, these expressions become interpreted as political because of their existence.
Kneecap’s music exists within a backdrop of cultural suppression that turns their creative acts into resistance. The band’s music evolves into something more profound because of its connection to their world; it connects Kneecap to their family members, the people in their local community, and their growing audience. Naoise's tense relationship with his ex-IRA father Arlo (a man whose ideas of resistance are purely militant) juxtaposes sharply with his mother's warmth, tenderness, and support. Both relationships, however, define the foundation of Naoise’s resistance, a reminder that the push for justice is rooted not just in ideology, but also in the people who give us reason to persist.
In Kneecap, the Palestinian flag exists as a reminder of the universality of this struggle. Recently, we’ve seen escalating atrocities and ongoing acts of violence in Palestine. Yet against all odds, Palestinian art and cinema continue to thrive, giving birth to powerful works that reclaim identity and assert the strength of a people under siege. Whether it's rap in Irish or poetry in Arabic, the reclamation of identity through art is most crucial when confronted with heartless attempts at erasure. In this context, art becomes a means to preserve heritage and imagine a future beyond oppression.
At the conclusion of the film, Kneecap performs a triumphant concert before a sea of solidarity and waving flags. Despite oppression and erasure, Kneecap uses music to declare their humanity, a refusal to be erased, and a call for justice that echoes across borders.
Inspired by Kneecap, FilmSlop has interviewed some Palestinian artists whose work embodies this unique feeling of defiance. Through these interviews and features, we platform artists who spearhead the notion of existence as resistance, exploring what drives them to create and witnessing how their individual expressions make for powerful political statements.
Check out some of these interviews below:
By engaging with and amplifying art from oppressed communities—Palestinian cinema, Irish-language rap, or any other form of cultural expression born of struggle—we aspire to support the global chorus of resistance.