Classic Movie

You pointed a gun at a cop!

La Haine (1995)

The plot: Paris's inner city project are a place where boredom, crime and rap music rule; a multi-racial boiling pot where legions of disaffected youth await the chance to smash stuff up, intimidate reporters and look hard whilst sitting on slides. When an Arab teenager is beaten into a coma during a routine police interrogation, a violent onset of rioting begins and three friends find themselves at the epicentre of the violence. Part-time Arab drug dealer, Said (Said Taghmaoui), can't stop talking/tagging; unassuming black boxer Hubert (Hubert Kounde) likes to think as much he likes to fight; and small-time Jewish thief, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), has found one of the assailant's guns and is determined for retirbution.

So what happens? Getting even comes with a heavy price. Interrogation by uniformed and undercover coppers, bust-ups with Nazi skinheads, failed attempts to steal shit French cars and games of Russian roulette with a rich drug dealer will await them. Revenge is no picnic.

Why's is a classic? Translated in English simply as 'Hate', director Mathieu Kassovitz splices real footage from real riots into La Haine with unnerving fluidity. The stark inner-city tenements are a far cry from the Champs Elysees but the black and white cinematography paints them with as much colour as the Moulin Rouge. On a budget smaller than Katie Price's frontal lobe, Kassovitz manages to produce a movie that sits comfortably alongside such classics as Mean Streets and Do The Right Thing. La Haine remains one of the most prescient pieces of European cinema ever made and the best thing to come out of France since Lacoste polos.

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