France / 1995 / 95mins / Crime, Drama / French

The kids from the Bluebell projects in Paris have spent all night fighting with the police after a 16-year-old boy is almost beaten to death following police questioning. Among them are three friends, an African, an Arab and a Jew, whose struggle against the boredom and marginality of their lives leads them into trouble.

Mathieu Kassovitz

Mathieu Kassovitz is a French director, screenwriter, producer, editor, and actor. He is the son of veteran French film director Peter Kassovitz, who appears in Métisse (Café au lait – 1993) as an inarticulate college professor. Mathieu began acting in film at an early age, appearing in his father’s Au bout du bout du banc in 1978 and in Jean-Loup Hubert’s L’Année prochaine… si tout va bien in 1981. Eager to direct as well as act, Kassovitz made his first short film, Fierrot le pou, in 1990. He wrote and directed La Haine (Hate – 1995), a hugely controversial film in France dealing with themes around class, race, violence, and police brutality. The film won the César Award for Best Film and netted Kassovitz the Best Director prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. Kassovitz established the film production firm MNP Enterprise in 2000. His 2011 film, Rebellion, was nominated for a César Award for Best Adaptation.
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