Behind the Scenes Look at La Haine (Hate)
Not unlike most of the films featured on IMDb's Top 250 Movies of All Time list, La Haine (Hate) has made a lasting impression and still twenty years later is more relevant than ever.
Starring Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui and Vincent Cassel the film covers a day in the lives of three young adults living in the impoverished, multi-ethnic French projects. Far from what we normally see on the big screen, this film captures the urban realism of its setting through stark black-and-white cinematography, following these young men as they hustle to survive and support their families amongst mounting racial and social tension from the police and French purists.*
“The director of La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz, was then only 26 years old, but he had somehow managed to rewrite everything that people thought they knew about French cinema. Kassovitz was fearless too. When the film premiered at the Cannes film festival – where it was a huge critical success – the police on duty turned their backs on Kassovitz and his crew, perceiving the film as an anti-police polemic. ”
PHOTO CREDIT: The Criterion Collection
To hear indepth commentary from Mathieu Kassovitz about the film, click here.
