La Haine

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Mathieu Kassovitz La Haine
The Criterion Collection 1995

Set in the projects of the Paris suburbs, Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine circles around three friends—Hubert, Vinz and Said—as they cope with the aftermath of riots incited by the shooting of their friend, Ahmed, by French police. Based around the real riots that have plagued Paris for the past fifteen years, La Haine seeks to contextualize many of the social problems it portrays. Shot in a crisp, documentary style black and white, it begins with actual news footage of riots taken over the years, before introducing its main characters one by one, alongside their names, in cinematic homage to Quentin Tarantino. Hubert, Vinz, and Said represent three distinct personalities, each with their own brand of coping. The director uses their friendship to depict specific aspects of ghetto life--the aimless search for creative ways to pass the time, the necessity of dealing drugs to put food on the table, the attempt to rise while being crushed by circumstances--as a chain of events is set in motion when Vinz, the angriest and most belligerent of the three, finds a gun.

La Haine depicts the inevitability of tragedy in hate-spawned circumstances. As a director, Kassovitz’s goal is as much to educate about how the social problems occur and are perpetuated, as it is to show the emotional impact they have on his characters. This movie speaks to a number of truths, including the fallibility of marginalizing the already underprivileged, the cycle through which violence is perpetuated, the humanness that runs through us all and the senseless means through which it can all come tumbling down.