Considering the recent protests revolved around incidents of police brutality in America, the film is more relevant now than ever. The film is not subjective to its time period nor its social and political situation, but universal in its context. Resorting to violence, the urban riots are driven by survival as much as they are by protest. Similar to Spike Lee’s metaphor of temperatures rising in “Do the Right Thing,” the characters in “La Haine” can only handle so much heat until they are pushed to their limit. considers “housing projects.” The film confronts the alienation and confinement of the banleieu’s disenfranchised youth. The banlieue refers to the suburban zones that surround French cities, equivalent to what the U.S. The stories of Makome M’Bowole and Malik Oussekine, victims of police brutality, inspired Kassovitz to write the script and focus on the clash between the French police force and the youth of the banlieue. It says as much about the present as it does about the past.Ī story of social unrest, “La Haine” proves it has double vision, reflecting the past while anticipating the future. In celebration of its anniversary, Indiewire reflects on how the film continues to remain relevant two decades later. release, “La Haine” has remained one of the most searing foreign titles of all time. A far cry from the golden City of Love we normally see on the big screen, “La Haine” 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. Starring Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui and Vincent Cassel (in his breakout performance), “La Haine” is set over 19 consecutive hours in the lives of three young adults living in the impoverished, multi-ethnic French projects.