WRITER and director Rich Peppiatt's wife is from Andytown. After living in London for fifteen years they returned to Belfast and after a career in making adverts and a documentary about his experience  of performing at the Out to Lunch festival, he found himself getting his head showered by taking a walk into the city centre.

It was there he came across the Limelight and, like many people before him, the adventure was just beginning. Outside the building was a poster for Irish rap trio Kneecap,. He thought to himself, 'Oh, I like rap' and in he went to experience for the first time the West Belfast rappers live. For a filmmaker, it's all about finding that niche and he thought that if he was impressed by a living, breathing language used in such a way by young people then others would be blown away by it as well.

It took him six months to convincing the group that he was serious when he went to talk with them about making a film. At first being shown the door and when considering what was the best way to capture their energy went for developing a narrative feature film. BFF says it's a Black Comedy we will have to see the finished version before making a definitive answer.T he group got acting lessons for six months which he participated in and he went off learn some Irish. He says the film is fifty percent in Irish with subtitles much of the storyline coming from experiences the Mo Chara, Móblai Bap and DJ Próval of Kneecap fame. The film  took on a new leap when Actor Michael Fassbender  agreed to feature in it as one of the lads dads brushing up on his Irish to get it authentic.

We were treated to some clips from Rich's new movie at the Belfast Film Festival 'Work in Progress' event, but sworn to secrecy. The first clip got the audience laughing and there was a feeling that any controversy the band has had so far will pale in comparison when the film is released. Rich said he was nervous of making his first feature without his normal crew around him, only bringing over his assistant director. The rest of the crew is local and Ryan Kernahan was on stage with him at the event talking of the luxury of making all the storyboards on Peppiatt's kitchen table without distractions. 

There's been a test screening in Dublin and the completed product will be premiered early next year. Peppiatt was not saying where, but he would love it to be the Kennedy Centre, where he takes his kids to see movies. Watch this space.