It's a gritty drama over 24 hours of three disadvantaged young men who live in a housing project near Paris in 1995. At the film's beginning, we see TV shots of riots and learn a young man, Abdel, has been seriously injured by the police and is in intensive care. We also learn a police gun has been lost. We then meet three friends of Abdel from the projects. Vinz (Vincent Cassel) is Jewish and hot-tempered. Hubert (Hubert Koundé) is of Black African heritage and operates a boxing gym badly damaged by the riot. Said (Said Taghmaoui) is Northern African. He's small but is the glue that holds the three volatile friends together.
The film follows their lives from 10:30 a.m. On the morning after the riot until 6:00 a.m. The following morning. The three wander through the day with no purpose. We learn Vinz is the person who found the gun. They encounter many people and frequently tangle with police--some who are sympathetic, more who are not. The three go into Paris to get money from a drug dealer (François Levantal), meet a Gulag survivor (Tadek Lokcinski), crash an art gallery opening, and have a run-in with skinheads, including one played by the director, Mathieu Kassovitz. The movie ends in a stunning but believable fashion.
"La Haine" is a gritty film about the hopelessness of marginal life in a culture that suppresses diversity. The black-and-white cinematography is stunning. The story stays in your face throughout without allowing escape and has almost a documentary feel. It has the force but not the flamboyance of a film like "Taxi Driver."
The film follows their lives from 10:30 a.m. On the morning after the riot until 6:00 a.m. The following morning. The three wander through the day with no purpose. We learn Vinz is the person who found the gun. They encounter many people and frequently tangle with police--some who are sympathetic, more who are not. The three go into Paris to get money from a drug dealer (François Levantal), meet a Gulag survivor (Tadek Lokcinski), crash an art gallery opening, and have a run-in with skinheads, including one played by the director, Mathieu Kassovitz. The movie ends in a stunning but believable fashion.
"La Haine" is a gritty film about the hopelessness of marginal life in a culture that suppresses diversity. The black-and-white cinematography is stunning. The story stays in your face throughout without allowing escape and has almost a documentary feel. It has the force but not the flamboyance of a film like "Taxi Driver."