Introduction to the film La Haine

1. Matthieu Kassovitz
(1995, France)
World Cinema:
Urban Stories

2. ‘La Haine’ intro
• The film is about three teenage friends and their struggle to live in
the banlieues of Paris.
• The film focuses on a single day in the lives of three young friends in
an impoverished multi-ethnic banlieues housing project in the
aftermath of a riot.
• Vinz (Vincent Cassel), who is Jewish, is filled with rage. An
aspirational gangster.
• Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) is a happy and talkative Maghrebin (Arab)
who tries to find middle ground between his two friends' responses to
life.
• Hubert (Hubert Koundé) is an Afro-French boxer and drug dealer.
The quietest of the three, he sadly contemplates the ghetto and the
hate around him.
• The title derives from a line spoken by one of them, Hubert: "La
haine attire la haine!", "hatred breeds hatred."

3. ‘Vive la France!
• La Haine is a French film that is said to ‘subvert cultural expectations’.
• Parlez vous la Francais? Have you been to France?
• What stereotypes would we associate with French culture and France as
a nation?
• Love of art and high culture
• Fine wine and cuisine
• Haute couture fashion
• Garlic and smelly cheese
• Gross toilets!
• What about characteristics/stereotypes of French people:
• Sophisticated and stylish.
• Passionate, romantic
• Rude and arrogant.
• Feel they are superior.
• The last two are negative views often from a British perspective. Indeed the
French think the British are equally rude and arrogant- and that we can’t cook!

4. ‘La Haine’ and modern multicultural France
• La Haine is set in the banlieues of Paris. The phrase les banlieues has been
increasingly used as a euphemism to describe low-income housing projects
in which mainly French of foreign descent reside.
• do we know about the immigrant groups in France? Is France multicultural?
Can you name any famous non-white European French people?
• So modern France is very multicultural with lots of immigrant communities
mainly from Africa. Why Africa?
• French colonial rule of Africa. Many nations in Africa speak French as first
language including, Morocco, Tunisia Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and
many more

5. Historical context of the film.
• Kassovitz has said that the idea came to him when a young Zairian, Makome
M'Bowole was shot in 1993. He was killed at point blank range while in police
custody and handcuffed to a radiator. The officer was reported to have been
angered by Makomé's words, and had been threatening him when the gun
went off accidentally.
• How does the film reference this event?
• Kassovitz wanted the film to be ‘wake up call’ to France about the problems
of the banlieues slums.
• He also wanted to express the feelings of ‘marginalisation’ many immigrant
groups felt as victims of social deprivation in a country that had ignored them
for a long time.
• In addition France was in the middle of period when the extreme ‘far right’
party Front National (France’s equivalent of the BNP) where gaining support.
This is shown in the scene involving the skinhead.

6. Historical Background
Slavery in France
(1780’s)
The dependence on
colonial slavery
French Colonial &
Postcolonial history
in Africa

7. Historical Background
WWI and WW II:
The Senegalese
Shooters (Les
Tirailleurs
Sénégalais) -
French colonial
soldiers
Liberation of
European cities by
Africans

8. French Immigration History
1930’s France had a
higher percentage of
foreigners than the
United States.
Immigrants first flowed
in from neighboring
countries (Spain, Italy,
Poland, Belgium)
(1914-1918) Aftermath
of WWI, shortage of
workforce
Recruitment of foreign
labor, mostly Polish
(1930)
Increase in African
immigration (1963)

9. French Immigration History
Recruitment of African
labor to come and work
in factories in the
aftermath of WWII.
Establishment of harsh
living conditions to
discourage permanent
immigration.
The labourers end up
staying and bring their
families over.
Shift from “les
bidonsvilles” to “Les
banlieues”.
Social exclusion

10. Racism in France
The Extreme Right
National Front
Jean Marie LePen
National Preference
rationale.
“pure Frenchness”
Unassimilability based
on culture and ethnicity
“Second and third
generation immigrants”
Liberty, equality
fraternity (contradiction)

11. Racism in France
• LePen receiving 16% of
the vote in 2002 1st round
(second largest share of
the vote).
• “Vote for the crook not
the fascist”
• Jacques Chirac 1995 -
2007 - healing the social
rift (fracture sociale)
• Sarcozy 2007 – 2012
tough on immigration/
insecurity (UMP – center
right.).