La haine

After a chaotic night of rioting in a marginal suburb of Paris, three young friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, wander around unoccupied waiting for news about the state of health of a mutual friend who has been seriously injured when confronting the police.

Kassovitz's portrait of three young men adrift in the Paris banlieues after a night of riots was embraced almost unanimously as a landmark of urban cinema. Critics zeroed in on its formal precision — the widescreen black-and-white photography, the unrelenting 24-hour clock — as inseparable from its social fury. The film's reception extended beyond critics: the French government felt compelled enough by its indictment of police violence and inequality to hold a mandatory cabinet screening.