When the moment of truth arrives, his will is tested. Vinz was the lucky hooligan who snatched it, and he wants revenge against the pigs who murdered his friend, but his quick temper gets he and his friends into trouble on more than one occasion. Shortly thereafter, riots broke out, and amidst the chaos one officer lost his firearm (in France normal civilians don’t carry guns like we are allowed in the US). A fellow resident has been killed in custody of the police, who were already in poor standing before the incident. By getting to know the area, and its residents, Kassovitz was able to make an important film, with both political and technical merits that stand side by side with outstanding performances by Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, and Saïd Taghmaoui.īound by the streets, Vinz (a Jew), Hubert (an African Frenchman), and Saïd (a French Arab) grew up living in the projects, not as best friends, but as close as one might get in such surroundings. The film places us in the bombed out cities where people burned their own businesses in protest, and graffiti covered neighborhood playgrounds where teens stagnantly talk about nothing all day long. Not only does it still carry cultural significance, but the film continues to awe with its striking black and white long takes, and bold encapsulation of what living in the public housing projects is like for people growing up in them. In 1995, Mathieu Kassovitz’s exceptional debut, La Haine, was a shocking realization of the unjust ghettoizing of immigrants taking place in France, and the violent abuse of power by police forces, but its surprising how relevant the subject remains today, even outside of French borders.