the emotion of Mathieu Kassovitz after the death of Nahel

A cry from the heart. Filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz spoke on social networks after the death of Nahel in Nanterre, and the anger and violence it has caused in several cities in France since Tuesday, June 27. A total of 875 people were arrested in France on the night of Thursday to Friday June 30 on the sidelines of the urban riots linked to the death of the young driver killed by a police officer during a refusal to comply, according to a final report communicated by the Ministry of the Interior.

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Waves of violence that are reminiscent of those of 2005, during the death of Zyed and Bouna, and all those, too, before. Because, almost 30 years ago, in 1995, Mathieu Kassovitz made Hatred. In his film, at the time, he recounted the aftermath of the night of riots in a city between young people and the police, after the injury of a resident by an agent. We then followed the trip of three of them, played by Vincent Cassel, Saïd Taghmaoui and Hubert Koundé, from their neighborhood in Paris.

A cult movie

In a message on Instagram, the director, with tears in his voice, explains that he finds that “‘Hatred’ is a film that is not an obscure little film”.

The film “is part of our culture now”, according to him. He belongs “of what we are”. “Vince, Hubert, Saïd, these are our little brothers, these are our little sisters and these are our children now.”

“I refer to La Haine because that’s when we started talking about these police blunders, 30 years ago”.

Mathieu Kassovitz, director of La Haine

instagram

With the movie, “everyone learned a lot”, says the director. “But apparently there are people who still haven’t understood who they are dealing with and who these young people are,” he laments. “They are sons, they are not thugs, they are not criminals: they have no weapons“, he points out.