Hot Docs 2026: Gealtra Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Hot Docs Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

In Brendan Canty’s Gealtra, the director documents the Kabin Studio in Knocknaheeny. Set in Cork, Ireland, the music recording venue produces songs by young Irish musicians, mostly rappers. The studio is a place where young rappers can express their sentiments through musicality. Canty registers the revolutionary act of cultivating the pride of being Irish through music, where producers from the studio act as mentors in the hopes of fostering a new generation of Irish kids seeking to be heard. Canty, follows up his debut feature, last year’s Berlinale Film Festival entry ‘Christy,’ with his second film of last year (premiering at the 2025 Cork International Film Festival before making its way to this year’s Hot Docs). With that, It almost sounds like he had the urge to follow up his work with a testament to his homeland, and the importance of the artistry to cultivate Irish pride. 

Gealtra, means gang in Irish Gaelic. As such, the film documents the studio as a pack, one formed by producers who create upcoming talent. The crucial difference between the Kabin Studio and other recording studios, that also shape talent, is how its rappers sing in Irish Gaelic. Surely, one might argue the similarities to the rappers and the influence of Kneecap. The Northern Irish trio is one of the most vocal advocates of the crucial importance of producing art and speaking the Irish Gaelic. The languages are living entities, and there is a necessity of cultivating them by speaking with one another. However, the young rappers from the Kabin Studio speak broadly of topics from their lives, such as belonging, pride, and the wounds of growing up. Obviously, there is a central difference between the trio from Belfast, who directly criticize the English colonialism, the Palestinian genocide, and other controversial subjects. The artistry involved is different, and the Kabin Studio serves as the introduction for those artists, not the end of the road.

Despite the fascinating pedagogical value of teaching young musicians to sing in Irish Gaelic, there is no strong core to the film. Beyond the central elements of the crucial incentivization of Irish culture, Canty does not have much to provide to audiences. We follow the production of songs and those subjects, but it is a shallow documentation of the importance of youth-related initiatives. Some citations portray elements of the popular culture exported by The Kabin Studio, such as the viral rap song ‘The Spark’ by a group of children from Cork, which exploded on TikTok and Instagram Reels. Contrary to past decades, when the global culture would suffer from the dominance of the American soft power, any song from anywhere in the world might go viral on the internet. Still, there is not much to extract, other than the achievement of making a popular song made by children go viral. 

Thus, Gealtra, a film about the young gang from Kabin Studio in Cork, portrays a fascinating youth-led initiative trapped in an uninteresting effort. There is much to admire in the importance of allowing adolescents to express themselves and the cruciality of making art in the ancient language. However, director Brendan Canty fails to float above its shallowness. 

still courtesy of Hot Docs

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Pedro Lima

Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.