2. A2 FILM STUDIES – SECTION A – URBAN STORIES: POWER, POVERTY & CONFLICT
CASE STUDY – FOCUS FILM 1
La Haine (1995)
Dir: Mathieu Kassovitz
Cast:
Vincent Cassel Vinz
Said Taghmaoui Sayid
Hubert Koundé Hubert
Synopsis
The film follows three young men and their time
spent in the French suburban "ghetto," over a span of
twenty-four hours. Vinz, a Jew, Saïd, an Arab, and
Hubert, a black boxer, have grown up in these French
suburbs where high levels of diversity coupled with the racist and oppressive police force
have raised tensions to a critical breaking point. During the riots that took place a night
before, a police officer lost his handgun in the ensuing madness, only to leave it for Vinz to
find. Now, with a newfound means to gain the respect he deserves, Vinz vows to kill a cop if
his friend Abdel dies in the hospital, due the beating he received while in police custody
Characters
Thinking about the characters involved can be a good way to begin to understand any film. In La Haine
we have three main characters: the friends:
 Sayid
 Vinz
 Hubert
Their ethnic origins are made clear to us:
 Sayid is an Arab African-French (Beur)
 Vinz has a Jewish background
 Hubert is a Black African-French

3. To them, drawn together by their shared youth culture, these differences seem unimportant; but each
character is shown to be very aware of the ways in which others in France might look at his ethnicity.
For example, because he is ‘white’, it is Vinz how is given the task of attempting to gain entry to the
middle-class block of flats where they hope to meet ‘Asterix’ / ‘Snoopy’
We could also consider the role each character is given within the narrative. We may notice, for example,
that after the contextualisation of the documentary footage the film opens with Sayid contemplating the
police in a very visually distinctive way and that we end the film in a somewhat similar manner.
Vinz, of course, is strongly linked in plot terms to the key prop of the handgun: the object that is dangerous
in that it is likely to “go off” or explode with deadly consequences. The scenes in which we see Vinz link
him to this object, not only physically in that he possesses it but also emotionally in that he displays himself
as a ‘loose cannon’, as someone who could explode into violence.
Hubert is the most carefully delineated character: we see him alone in his bedroom and at home with his
mother, for instance, in scenes that do not move the plot forward but which increase our understanding of
his character and intensify our sense of identification with him.
How would you differentiate the three central characters?
Make sure you can refer to specific scenes in order to illustrate your case and compare your ideas
with other people, if possible.
(In undertaking this task it is very important to remember that film is a visual medium and may ‘show’
us features of an individual character’s make-up through performance and/or carefully constructed
shots rather than simply ‘telling’ us in the use of dialogue)
 Which one (if any) is the central ‘hero’?
o How would you justify your choice?
 What role does Samir, the Beur police officer, play in the film?
 Are there any other minor characters who serve to tell us more about each character?
 Why has the older character in the scene in the toilets been included in the film?

4. Key Scenes
In discussing the characters in the film you will notice how you need to be able to refer in detail to specific
scenes in order to make your case for seeing Sayid, Vinz and Hubert in particular ways. This knowledge of
the finer points of any film construction is important when you come to write about this film or any other
film. You need to be able to identify ways in which elements of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing
and sound, and the structure of the narrative, create meaning and generate audience responses.
It is always important to analyse the opening to a film since this is usually particularly helpful in
identifying key themes and ideas for the whole film.
Here, the first scenes are played out to the soundtrack of Bob Marley’s Burnin’ and Lootin’, suggesting
a particular way of seeing the documentary footage.
Marley is strongly associated with radical politics and a willingness to confront state authorities that
are seen both within the music and the associated youth culture as being repressive. As a result the
actions of the rioters seem to receive a form of endorsement that might not have been achieved had a
different choice of musical accompaniment been made.
“This morning I woke up in a curfew;
O God, I was a prisoner, too – yeah!
Could not recognise the faces standing over me;
They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality. Eh!”
A full analysis of the film’s opening would involve considering the sequence of shots found here in much
greater detail and all the time in relation to both dialogue and music.
Please refer to your Close Analysis Booklet for an in-depth analysis of the opening sequence!

5. Key Scenes
It is important to ground your understanding of the film in this sort of detailed exploration of individual
scenes. We will therefore undertake careful critical analyses of each of the following scenes:
 The TV news crew attempting to interview Sayid, Vinz and Hubert about the previous night’s riots
when they literally ‘look down on’ the three friends in a space that resembles a bear pit or zoo
enclosure
 Hubert in his bedroom with iconic images of rebellious black Americans in the background (the
boxer Muhammad Ali, and African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos giving a
Black Power salute at the 1968 Mexico Olympics
 The police and local council authorities attempting to force young people, including Sayid, Vinz &
Hubert, from the rooftop of one of the tower blocks
 The three main characters sitting in a children’s play area filmed and edited in such a way as to
convey the sense of utter boredom being experienced
 The DJ using his decks to blast out anti-police messages in a scene which is filmed and edited to
convey an experience of momentary freedom, escape or release
 The three central characters experiencing a surreal (but notice, heavily historically grounded)
storytelling experience with an older man in a Parisian toilet
 The two experienced plain-clothes policemen ‘questioning’ Sayid and Hubert while a younger
trainee office looks on
 The scene at the late-night exhibition in a high-class area gallery at which the class divide
becomes apparent
 The friends being confronted by a skin head gang (raising, as in the scene with the older man in
the toilet, the issue of fascism)
 The final dramatic scene in which there is a critical change to the story that has been retold
several times, so that it becomes a ‘society’ that is ‘falling’
Messages and Values
La Haine was based on an actual event: the death of an 18 year old Black youth shot during interrogation
by the police in 1992. This context gives the central concern for the film, but the riots and the violent
confrontation between the police and young people is placed within a much wider social context.

7. Multiculturalism and ethnicity within modern French society is clearly explored. For
example:
 Hubert’s poster are of Muhammad Ali and the ‘black power’ salute given at the
1968 Olympics
 The Wailers’ song Burnin’ and Lootin’ links directly to ideas of black
uprisings
More positively, the three friends are of mixed ethnicity, and within youth
culture the separate ethnicities are shown as evolving into a vibrant hybrid
cultural fusion. There is a focus on the music, dance styles and street slang (‘verlan’) of this contemporary
popular culture.
A strong sense of the nature of the working-class experience is given, for
example:
Through the location shooting among the
bleak, stark walls and tower blocks of the
estate and the deliberate choice of black
and white film stock
In addition, by transporting the friends into
central Paris strong contrasts are able to be
given with the middle-class experience
found there. This also places the problem
firmly within the heart of French society
rather than leaving it as a peripheral issue
out in the ‘projects’.

8.  Racism is shown, most obviously in the scenes with the skinhead gang.
“Doing your good deed?
There are good pigs...but the
only good skin-head is a dead
skin-head!
Do it!”
 Youth Unemployment is a constant feature of the ‘social backdrop’: neither Sayid nor Vinz not
Hubert have a job.
The first half of La Haine is spent in the Projects.
Most of these sequences show the characters
wasting time with nothing to do. Kassovitz
expertly depicts the drudgery of everyday life in
the project – nothing to do but sit around.
With no productive way of occupying their minds
the trio quickly resort to criminal activity to help
pass the time.
 Police Brutality is clearly an issue though the role of Samir and the presence of black police
officers within the mise-en-scene of several scenes suggest this is not a simple and clear-cut
matter.
The trio are arrested in Paris and taken
back to a Police station so a new
recruit can be trained in torture.
Not all Police are represented this way
however. Samir, a Beur like Sayid,
treats the trio with respect and even
offers to help Hubert with a grant for a
new gym.

9.  Social Exclusion, as shown on the tower block rooftop, in the art gallery, and in the empty high-
tech shopping mall, would seem to be creating an ‘underclass’. An inevitable product of that,
according to the film would seem to be rebellion and social conflict.
Throughout the film the mise-en-scene and
cinematography emphasise the isolation felt by
the characters.
When in Paris centre we do not see the tourists
or expanding population of this urban
environment. The trio are isolated due to their
class, race, ethnicity and position in the world.
They do not fit in or belong and the
cinematography reflects this.

10.  Compile a list of scenes that focus on issues of race
 List your own points regarding ways in which working-class life (maybe in relation to or in
comparison to the middle-class experience) is portrayed
 List features of contemporary youth culture as shown in the film

11. Social, Historical and Political Contexts

13. Immigration & France
In the history or historiography of France, little attention has been paid to the impact and
influence of immigrants on the development of the French nation. This differs greatly from
America's construction of its own historical development which explicitly acknowledges the role
of immigrant communities.
It was only really in the 1980s that French historians really began to look seriously at the question
of the influence of immigration. This neglect is all the more surprising when one considers that,
over the last two hundred years, France has received more immigrants than any other European
country. By 1930 in fact, France had a higher percentage of foreigners in its population than the
United States.

15. FRANCE
• President: François Mitterrand (1981 – 1995)
• Population: 57,840,445
• Paris Population: 9,514,000
• Religions:
– Roman Catholic 90%
– Protestant 2%
– Jewish 1%
– Muslim (North African workers) 1%
– unaffiliated 6%
– National Unemployment: 10.1 %
• Unemployment in Paris “Immigration Ghetto’s”:
20 – 40%
Changing Faces
Post WWII France was in dire need of workers to catch up with other industrialised nations. At first,
immigrants came mostly from Italy and Spain. Then they came from North African countries, Western
African countries and Portugal.
In the 1960’s an economic crisis hit the country resulting in a rise in unemployment and lack of jobs.
As a result, in 1974 the Government started limiting immigration and the influx of immigrants steadily
dropped to 74,000 per year in 1997. This figure read 200,000 + during the early 1980’s.
By the end of 1994, there were about 5 million people of Muslim descent living in France.
Crux of the Problem
It is currently estimated that 40 percent of the French population descends from these different waves of
migrations, making France the most ethnically diverse country in Europe.
Immigrants from other European countries have had an easier time blending in (race and religion being
key), while “non-European” groups have tended to assimilate at a slower pace.

16. Difficult Integration
Because of the difficulty integrating into French society, many young males of African and Arab descent
work for lowest wages and often live in ghettos where crime is rampant.
“Western Europe society has not managed to integrate second – or third-generation immigrants,” said
Scott Atran, Director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and professor of
psychology at the University of Michigan.
France has a chronic problem of not knowing how to shrug off the “ossified economic and political
structure” that rules the country, he added.
French policy towards immigrants has always been one of ‘assimilation’ with people
being expected to take on French cultural norms and values
White-European immigrants find it a lot easier to assimilate to French society.
Possible explanations for this:
White-European immigrants share the same race, cultures and in most cases the same
religions
African immigrants mostly practice Islam and Christian religions

17. THE FRENCH MASSACRE AT SETIF (ALGERIA)
How the French celebrated VE-Day in
1945
Despite the fact that most of the fighting
against the Axis forces and Vichy France
in North Africa had been conducted with
honour and dispatch by Algerian troops
the French decided to celebrate the
victory of the Allies (a small part of who
were French) by committing an act of
barbarism and genocide that echoes to
this day. In one weekend of violence they
murdered 45,000 Algerians.
Peaceful demonstrations had been taking
place across Algeria for some months
against the unfair treatment of
indigenous Algerians (an oft-mentioned
example was the reservation of bread for
Europeans, the others only having the
right to barley) and 15,000 people had
protested in the streets of Mostaganem
earlier without any incidents.
On May 8, 1945, a day chosen by the allies to celebrate their victory over Nazi Germany,
thousands of Algerians gathered near the Abou Dher El-Ghafari mosque in Setif for a peaceful
march - for which the sous-prefet had given permission. It was a market day.
At 9am, led by a young scout Saal Bouzid, whose name had been drawn for the honour of
carrying the national flag, the demonstrators set off. A few minutes later the crowd, chanting
‘vive l’independance’ and other nationalist slogans, came under fire from troops commanded by
General Duval and brought in from Constantine.
Saal Bouzid fell dead, becoming a national martyr. The scene soon turned into a massacre - the
streets and houses being littered with dead bodies. Witnesses claim terrible scenes, that
legionnaires seized babies by their feet and dashed their heads against rocks, that pregnant
mothers were disembowelled, that soldiers dropped grenades down chimneys to kill the
occupants of homes, that mourners were machine gunned while taking the dead to the
cemetery.
A public record states that the European inhabitants were so frightened by the events that they
asked that all those responsible for the protest movement should be shot. The carnage spread
and, during the days that followed, some 45,000 Algerians were killed. Villages were shelled by
artillery and remote hamlets were bombed with aircraft.

18. A Colonel in charge of burials being criticized for slowness told another officer ‘You are killing
them faster than I can bury them.’ These incidents led to the upsurge of the PPA and ultimately,
17 years later to the country’s independence. In the retaliatory violence that immediately
followed 104 Europeans were assassinated, but by the end several thousands were to die.
These incidents were particularly hard for Algerians who had fought the Nazis alongside the
French forces, some of whom came home to find that their families had been decimated by the
troops of General de Gaulle.
Led by the FLN (the national liberation front) the independence struggle caused France to draft
in thousands of troops. In spite of opposition by Europeans living in the country a cease-fire was
agreed to in March 1962. An extremist wing of the Army, the OAS,
expanded its campaign of murder, torture and destruction, carrying on
despite the cease-fire.
Survivors say that to this day France as a colonial power ‘has not had
the courage to recognize its crimes. carried out in its former colonies
and that it pretends to be a champion of human rights’.
Ending the liberation war, the Evian Agreement declared that extremist
French soldiers (both regular, OAS and pieds noir irregulars, would not be
prosecuted for crimes carried out in Algeria.
Both Chirac and Le Pen served in Algeria in the French Army.
• After World War II many countries under French control sought
independence – this struggle was particularly bitter in Algeria and
Vietnam
• On VE day (Sept. 8th 1945) 4000 Algerians held a peaceful protest
demanding Independence from the French
• This protest led to widespread disturbances and killings in and
around the Algerian town of Setif
• The massacre is the inspiration for
the film
“The Battle of Algiers (1967) “
• On May 8th 1945 the French authorities opened fire on Algerian
protestors
• The police brutality led to reprisals and attacks were carried out
on French farmers and French ‘colons’ (Colonials)
• After five days of violence the French authorities carried
out a series of reprisal attacks – (this army contained many
Senegalese soldiers)
• The massacre lasted an entire weekend and resulted in thousands of deaths

19. The following actions were sanctioned by the French State:
• Executions of rioters / protestors
• Muslim Villages bombed by French Air Craft
• A cruiser named Duguay –Trouin bombed a city called ‘Kerrata’ from the Gulf of Bougie
• Paid vigilantes known as Pied-noir (Black feet) lynched villagers and prisoners
• Muslims who refused to wear white arm bands (required by the French Army) were shot dead
• Official death tolls range from 1,200 (French) to 45,000 (Algerian)
(Historians place the figure at approx. 6000)
• These events sparked the Algerian – French war which lasted from 1945 until 1962 when Algeria
was finally granted independence
• After the war all Pied-noir and Algerian members of the French army were repatriated to France
• The Algerians were put in Internment camps whilst the Pied Noir went free and were given land
• Once released, Algerian’s were forced in to Shanty towns away from the middle class cities
• This is where Les Banlieues were later built

20. • France has a long association with the Jewish community
• For over 2000 years Jewish communities have been found in France
• As of 2010 there are believed to be between 483,000 & 500,000 Jews living in France
• This number makes up only 1% of the entire French population
• Ever since Jew’s first settled in France they have been persecuted and faced
Anti-Semitism – often state sponsored – especially during the 20th Century
• At the beginning of the 20th Century Anti-Semitism was actively
encouraged by Anti-Republican political groups, the Catholic Church, the
Army, Civil Service and the Judiciary of France
• People believed the Jew’s could never be properly integrated in to a
French Christian society and therefore were seen as potential traitors
• After Germany’s occupation of France in 1939 the country was split in two
• German Controlled
• Vichy controlled
• Over 150,000 Jews sought refuge in Vichy but were subjected to fierce
discrimination similar to that practiced by the Nazi’s
• Jewish citizens were rounded up and held in train
stations and stadia before being transported to Auschwitz
• During World War II the Vichy government
exported 75,721 Jews to Nazi death camps
• Of these, only 2000 survived
• It was not until the retirement of French
president Francois Mitterrand (whom had been decorated by Petain himself) in 1994 that the
country was able to face up to its role in the massacre of the Jews.
• Mitterrand claimed that it would cause to much ‘Civil Unrest’ if the issue was given a
public forum

21. • Over the years feelings of resentment, anger and denial built up, before exploding in the 1980’s and
1990’s in the form of violent riots
• Between the years of there have been several major riots in the city of Paris
What does this suggest to you about French Society and culture?
This continual cycle of violence indicates that there is a deep lying problem in French society –
especially among the immigrant / working classes