La Haine

Responsible for causing a scandal on its domestic release, this bruising portrait of disaffected youth confirmed its writer/director Mathieu Kassovitz as the wunderkind of French cinema. Presenting the housing schemes on the outskirts of Paris as hotbeds of racial hatred and social unrest, the film follows three young men from different ethnic backgrounds and explores how they spend their endless spare time and their response to a case of police brutality. Vincent Cassel is outstanding as the Jewish skinhead, but it's Kassovitz's restless camerawork and a script as funny as it is hard-hitting that make this such an impressive and important work.

The social resonance of Kassovitz’s film has remained since its initial release, especially following the rioting that paralysed France in late 2005. As a result, the film has inspired numerous others, which are set in the deprived, ethnically diverse suburbs of Paris such as Ma 6-T va cracker (1997) and La Squale (2000).

With La Haine Kassovitz broke with the previous trend in French cinema by treating social commentary with a more innovative style in his exploration of a gritty and explosive situation.