He was known to have taken place in protests, believing in the improvement of the conditions of life for the disadvantaged, such as would be suggested by the values of the Republic-liberty, equality, fraternity. Paris has a long history of civil disobedience, from the aforementioned student riots of 1968, to the French Revolution and the Paris Commune, to the riots of November 2005 that took place in the banlieues (suburban estates) that La Haine so unflinchingly depicts.ĭirector/writer Mathieu Kassovitz was well-versed in the art of dissent. But rage will always need an outlet, and if you don’t provide it with one, it will force the issue.
Sometimes this rage has a direction, sometimes not. You can attempt to internalise anger, but more often than not this will fail. These tempers, to be sure, are about to explode. Boredom, poverty, failed social engineering, and a glut of police bavures (blunders or accidents) under the stifling heat of the summer sun has seen violent tempers rise with the temperature. What year is this, and where? Paris in 1968? Brixton and Toxteth in 1981? London and Manchester in 2011? Voices have been heard, but at what cost? The authorities will still sleep soundly, brutalised perhaps, but still comfortable in their comparatively luxurious homes and disposable incomes. Those who lived here will still live here, now having to pick up the pieces of their lives from the fragments of the debris all around them. In the aftermath, the burnt-out shells of buildings, cars, and rubbish bins stand like monuments to a desolate stalemate. They are armed with batons and tear gas and try to force submission with water cannons. In retaliation, the police form a blockade, attempting to kettle in and contain the threat. Picture the scene: rioters have taken to the streets to express their frustration, their dissent, their civil disobedience.