Fear and loathing in suburban Paris

A man falls from a building’s 50th floor. Every 10th floor he passes, he reminds himself that it hasn’t been that bad so far. Little does he know that it’s not about the fall, it’s about the landing. La Haine (1995), a Paris-based movie, perfectly exemplifies the fall experienced by three inner-city teens.

A man falls from a building’s 50th floor. Every 10th floor he passes, he reminds himself that it hasn’t been that bad so far. Little does he know that it’s not about the fall, it’s about the landing. La Haine (1995), a Paris-based movie, perfectly exemplifies the fall experienced by three inner-city teens. Written and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and starring a young Vincent Cassell (Ocean’s Twelve, Eastern Promises), it documents a 24-hour period in the lives of Vince (Cassell) and his friends Sa’d (Sa’d Taghmaoui) and Hubert (Hubert Koundé).
Montrealers were treated to a special screening of the film last Friday at Cinéma du Parc. When a teen from La Cité (the ghetto) is wrongfully shot and hospitalized, anarchy spreads like wildfire, a situation reminiscent of last month’s events in Montreal North.
The riot police are instantly called in to suppress the violence. They take a severely aggressive stance against everything that moves, firing back with rubber bullets and flash bangs.
The black helmets and shields they carry glisten under the street lamps while hundreds of angry youth pelt them with rocks and bottles. Cars are lit on fire and stores are vandalized.
After a night of bloodshed and chaos, the warring factions retreat to lick their wounds. The police are forced to ramp up their presence within La Cité, leading to increased animosity and distrust.
“Le monde est

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