Written and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, the film shares similar themes with Spike Lee's ' Do the Right Thing' and John Singleton's ' Boyz n the Hood.' It provides a voice for a voiceless minority, capturing the attitudes and concerns of the youth in a way that's as mesmerizing as it is frightening. Following three young, wayward friends the day after a violent riot left their neighborhood in shambles, the black-and-white drama is a powerful commentary on racial discrimination, poverty and immigration. It's a broader look of the famous city commonly thought of as representing the height of culture and sophistication, exposing a side of the capital often ignored, even by its own citizens.
With a trenchant incisiveness into social unrest and disillusionment, the gritty, documentary-style lens of cinematographer Pierre Aïm sheds a light on the little-known housing-projects in the outskirts of the City of Lights. Intensely gripping and unapologetic in its approach to contemporary France, 'La Haine' is a stark, bleak portrait of the impoverished youth living in the banlieues of Paris.
