KNEECAP

Sunday School of Rock’s sixth offering for 2025 is something a little bit different. It’s not a documentary and it’s not a concert film. It’s a genre-pushing, post-colonial, post-modern biopic where the musicians play fictionalized versions of themselves alongside some big-name actors playing the supporting characters in their story.

Sunday 13 July at Henkel Street Cinema brings you KNEECAP.

The story of Kneecap rambunctiously bounces along depicting a pair of unmotivated youths from the Gaeltacht area of West Belfast forming a hip hop group with a music teacher almost by accident. The trio then find themselves caught in the middle of nationwide Irish language movement.

The film’s been described by Variety as “Bursting with unruly energy that practically escapes the confines of the screen, Kneecap is a riotous, drug-laced triumph in the name of freedom that bridges political substance and crowd-pleasing entertainment”. The film has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the critics’ consensus stating “A rebellious anthem for cultural preservation, Kneecap is as shaggy, rambunctious, and lovable as the eponymous hip hop group at its center.” Director Rich Peppiatt whose main prior film making credits consisted of Kneecap’s music clips was awarded the BAFTA for “Outstanding Debut” in 2025.

Here’s what the producers have to say about the film.

“There are 80,000 native Irish speakers in Ireland. 6,000 live in the North of Ireland. Three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This is the real-life story of how this anarchic Belfast trio became the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue.”

The film promises to be as high energy as the group themselves. When the trio came to Melbourne in March a free pop-up event filled Fed Square. By May they were filling headlines around the world as their progressive anti-colonial politics saw them on the wrong side of British Law. At the time of writing Kneecap rapper Mo Chara AKA Liam O’Hannah is facing a court hearing on June 18th for allegedly expressing solidarity with Palestinian terror group Hamas. Kneecap deny the claims strenuously.

Whichever way the judge’s gavel falls the events of today can’t help but resonate with the themes of literal free speech within the film.

Don’t miss it and fight the power or maybe it’s better to say “troid an chumhacht”!

Running time: 95 minutes