Day 71: La Haine

Riots break out in an estate in France after a local kid, Abdel, is beaten into a coma by the police. For 24 hours the film follows Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) and Hubert (Hubert Koundé) as they go about their day. During the riot an officer lost his gun and somehow Vinz got hold of it and he is threatening to kill “a pig” if Abdel dies.

The personalities of the three guys were interesting. All of them were angry about what happened to Abdel and the continual police oppression where they live but they deal with it in different ways. Hubert seems the most together of the three, he wants to get out of the estate and get away from the fighting. He continually has to calm Vinz down throughout the film and he tries to keep the peace between people and the police. Saïd can get a bit riled up but he mainly just seems to want to mess around. He’s telling jokes and he just wants to keep away from the fighting and get a girl. Vinz, however, has a quick temper and he wants to be respected and he thinks the way to do this is to shoot a police officer. It seems like the gun reflects how he feels inside: strong, dangerous and not to be messed with. But as the film goes on you can see he is all talk and eventually he gives up the gun, knowing he can’t use it.

Was definitely interesting to see a side to France that I usually don’t see in films. I liked that it was shot in black and white, it worked well for the gritty feel of the film.

“It’s not the fall that matters, it’s the landing.”

8/10