LA HAINE

I’m not quite sure how to begin this one… I mean, if I told you this film is a stinging critique of French society today, you’d probably run a mile… That, however, is EXACTLY what it is… The film is based around true events – or rather they have true events at their heart… Do you remember a couple of years back; France was scene to a series of violent protests around the Paris suburbs especially? These places were poor areas where immigrants settled and tried (and still try) to make lives for themselves in France. We are taken to those housing projects, and the day after the bigger of the protests, we follow three youths from the neighborhood around for a day and we try and understand what is wrong and what exactly they are protesting about…
Hubert, Vinz and Saed are the three youths. Hubert, Afro-French, is the worst for wear among the three. He has the responsibility of caring for his mother and siblings and his only way of doing that, his gym, was destroyed in the protests the night before. Saed, originally Arab, thinks the whole thing is a big adventure, not quite aware of how serious the situation is. Vinz – or Vincent, is the eldest son of a Jewish family and Saed’s best friend. He takes the protests really seriously and is frustrated with his friends for not “getting up and doing something” to change things in the projects… It only takes one day out of their lives to see the problems with society in general – much less that of society in France…
La Haine – Hatred is a film criticizing all global societies. In today’s brave new world, the old divides no longer matter… Saed and Vinz tease each other calling one another a “mock Arab” and a “mock Jew”, as far as they’re concerned, they are both French; they live in the same society. No, the new “us” and “them” is largely based around “have”s and “haven’t”s. The rich people in good neighborhoods, the cops (the “pigs”) who don’t give them a chance, they are the enemy. And the film does a strikingly good job of showing us the general sense of helplessness in front of this rather gargantuan and faceless enemy. You may have your feet firmly placed on the ground like Hubert, you may do Travis Bickle impressions in front of the mirror like Vinz, if you’re in the projects, well, the feeling is you never get out… The scene where Vinz is doing said impressions (in French naturellement) is quite touching actually. We are all actually so similar… And we dream the same dreams; we suffer from such similar things… The film has a great sadness about it which is possibly exacerbated by the fact that it is shot in black and white – in true film noir style. It will fill you with an overwhelming sense of injustice mixed with helplessness, but La Haine says a lot of things that truly need to be said and asks a lot of questions that need to be asked… I will not give too much away but just want to add, the end is one of the most striking I have ever seen…