Kneecap on their ‘Trainspotting’-inspired movie: “Irvine Welsh said it was the best film he’d seen in fucking years”

3 July, 2024

Kneecap live at Glastonbury 2024. Credit: Andy Ford for NME

Kneecap have spoken to NME about the influence of Trainspotting on their upcoming biopic, and how the film has received praise from author Irvine Welsh. Watch our video interview with the band above.

The Irish rap trio unveiled the official trailer for their upcoming self-titled biopic, starring Michael Fassbender, earlier this month. The film was also previewed at Glastonbury Festival’s cinema tent, Pilton Palais, last weekend.

Written and directed by Rich Peppiatt, the feature-length comedy-drama won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It is due to arrive in Irish cinemas on August 8, before hitting the big screen in the UK on August 28.

“Based on the origin story of the riotous and ground-breaking Irish-language rap trio Kneecap, the film stars the band’s Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí in their acting debuts,” an official synopsis reads.

“Set in West Belfast in 2019, it chronicles how fate brings the trio together and how they then go on to ‘change the sound of Irish music forever’.”

Fassbender (who plays Bap’s father, an exiled IRA member) stars in Kneecap alongside the likes of Simone Kirby, Jessica Reynolds, Fionnuala Flaherty and Josie Walker. Visit here for tickets and more information.

The film managed to catch the attention of Welsh, who described it on social media as “absolutely fucking phenomenal”.

“We love the movie, but we weren’t sure if it would ever go beyond Belfast,” said Móglaí Bap. “It’s very colloquial. It’s kind of like Trainspotting in that way. Then we went to Sundance and got the audience award. It’s similar to our music; people just get the energy and the craic out of it. I don’t know think Americans know what a tout is, but it didn’t stop them enjoying it.”

“Obviously we loosely took some ideas from Trainspotting and stuff, then we had Irvine Welsh who wrote it coming out and saying it was the best film he’d seen in fucking years or something,” added bandmate DJ Próvaí. “That’s massive praise for us. Obviously we’re a music band we’re doing fucking acting jobs that we’d never done before and people were dubious about whether or not we were going to make it as fucking actors; but go see it.”

Similarly to Kneecap, Trainspotting used its own specific slang but still became a massive success across cultural lines. The 1993 novel the film is based on uses Scots and Scottish English to tell the story of various heroin users and addicts in Leith, Edinburgh.

During a recent interview with the trio for The Cover, NME wrote: “The ballsy biopic is a runaway romp of sex, drugs, music and politics. A clash of 8 Mile and Trainspotting with a dash of Steve McQueen’s Hunger…”

NME‘s Andrew Trendell said that “Kneecap’s performance couldn’t be more convincing – but then, they’ve already lived it”, adding: “Holy shit. What a film.”

DJ Próvaí told NME: “It needed to feel genuine. If it didn’t feel like something we would do, we just went, ‘No chance’.”

NME continued: “With thrills, pills and bellyaches, the film shows the band at war with both sides – the Belfast authorities and dissident Republicans – and makes a case for the Irish language in the modern world with existence as an act of defiance.

“Ultimately, it sums up Kneecap’s mission: being seen in a place that never wanted you to exist.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Kneecap offered an apology to Paul Mescal, who had been seen wandering around the Glastonbury site, for “questioning his Irish”.

“Paul, keep up with the Irish! You’re a legend, we love you and I love your jean shorts,” said Bap.

Mo Chara added: “I want to just clarify there. We weren’t giving out about Paul Mescal [with comments they made about him speaking Irish last year]. Somebody asked us, ‘What do you think of the Irish being sexy again?’ We were like, ‘It’s always been fucking cool, it’s always been a thing, that these families in rural places kept the language alive – then the whole place just fucking exploded when Paul Mescal spoke in Irish. Fair play to him! It wasn’t against him, it was against the media. We love you Paul! We apologise. Let’s get a pint.”

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