La Haine, Identity, & Isolation
“I’m fuckin’ sick of the goddamn system! We live in rat holes, you do fuck-all to change things!…If Abdel dies, I hit back. I’ll whack a pig!”
“In school we learnt that hate breeds hate!”
“I didn’t go to school, I’m from the street! Know what it taught me? Turn the other cheek, and you’re a dead motherfucka!” (Kassovitz).
The rat holes and streets mentioned refer to the living complexes on the outskirts of urban cities in France, in this case Paris: the banlieues. The banlieues are not suburbs in the traditional sense; they can be considered as the French equivalent of American “projects”. These were, and remain today the home for high concentrations of immigrant groups, most notably, North Africans, who were often internal migrants to France. In the past, these neighborhoods of North Africans had significantly higher segregation indexes than those of other immigrant groups, reaching as high as three times that of the Portuguese (Lucassen 187). The banlieues represented a disconnect from the rest of French society for immigrants, especially second generation youth who felt deeply French but were also pulled in the opposite direction towards the heritage of their families. These youth, faced with this internal conflict and physical separation from the rest of French society, experienced overwhelming isolation and in turn identity confusion.
The banlieues in recent history have been plagued with heavy unemployment, high rates of school dropouts, and crime (Lucassen 185). In the film, La Haine (1995) (from which the quote above is taken), director Mathieu Kassovitz explores the harsh realities of living in the outer reaches of city and society. It follows three, second-generation youths, Saïd, a Maghrebi, Hubert, a West African, and Vinz, a French Jew over the course of a day in the aftermath of a riot and the loss of a friend. Vinz, the most aggressive and emotionally driven of the three plots his revenge for his dead friend while Hubert emotes quiet wisdom and hope for escaping the projects; and then there’s Saïd, a mediator between his two passionate friends. For them, life in the banlieues seems to consist of a lot of idling, smoking hash, and small talk. The calmness and plainness of their lives at the start of their day is a direct contrast to the turmoil that occurred just hours before, when cars and building were torched, and their friend Abdel was put into a coma by police brutality.
These were common, real occurrences prior to when the movie was made, in the 1980s, and almost prophetically after, in the riots of late 2005. The riots in 2005, which began in October and continued through January 2006 were sparked by a similar situation seen frequently in La Haine. It is speculated that three young boys, in Clichy-sous-Bois, Paris’ most notorious suburb, were running away from police who were known to aggressively question and harass youth when they hid near a power station and were subsequently electrocuted to death. The ensuing rioters and protesters believed this fear of harassment is what drove these kids to their death and held the police directly accountable (Sciolino). This is similar to La Haine, as the three protagonists are constantly getting into conflicts or being harassed by police and Parisians. Although the trio is not comprised of what one would call model citizens, they seem to be harassed for no reason, merely based on the assumption by French society that immigrants in the projects are always “up to no good”.
When the group escapes to Paris after being chased by riot police, they feel out of place, in a different world. Hubert observes French city-dwellers: “Look at those sheep in the system. They look cute in their fancy leather jackets. But they’re scumbags. They ride escalators carried by the system. They vote far right, but aren’t racist. They can’t move without escalators” (Kassovitz). In other words, those within French society turn a blind eye to the ills around them, choosing to do nothing to change the current situation and merely being herded by the system, by the ruling society.
The characters in La Haine are completely cut off from urban centers, from the “sheep” of mainstream France, areas that don’t have high concentrations of immigrants. In fact, the characters feel so disconnected that they turn to the “safe” subculture of the banlieues, a culture of partially self-imposed exclusion from society and pride for their immigrant hometowns. This arises from a lack of feeling needed as a part of mainstream society, so the youth then fall deeper into their direct environment. As the projects represent the familiar and cultural implications of being a minority, Paris represents for these characters their “Frenchness”. Although they rather not live in constant turmoil and less-than-optimal conditions in the projects, they also do not feel welcome in French society either. This is because French society isn’t welcoming to them. This fact forces the youth, (in both the movie and in reality) to stay trapped in their microcosms, feeling devalued as citizens, and developing an Us versus Them mentality (Kirszbaum). Because They (French society) will not recognize Us (immigrant youth) as a part of Them (being French) the youth feel frustration that gives rise to and feeds aggression and violence.
Out of this mentality an escalating cycle is born. A cycle of feeling isolated, aligning with a subculture with anUs vs Them mentality, acting out because a lack of recognition, which then gives Them more of a reason to exclude immigrants from society, ergo isolation once again. Once the cycle is repeated enough times it often leads to the hopelessness, observed in Hubert in the film: wanting to get out, but with no feasible means in sight to do so. For all Hubert’s efforts to make it out through his talent of boxing, in the end, it seems that maybe the only way out was in a body bag.
Hubert and other second-generation immigrants find their isolation annoyingly frustrating because although some may only speak French, and even reject the cultures of their parents, they still feel like outsiders in their native country’s society. In a survey in 1993, seven out of ten youth Maghrebis identified more with French culture than that of their parents (Hargreaves). French values stress liberty and brotherhood, but dissonance arises in the youth when they don’t see that reflected in their own lives. On top of that fact, they are blamed by the French government for being unwilling to integrate, when it seems as though it is the government that is unwilling to support them. Immigrants and especially the youth are easy targets to place the blame for social ills. In an 1991 survey, two thirds of French respondents thought there were too many immigrants in France but that same proportion also reported that they had never had significant contact with these same immigrants (Hargreaves). So it turns out that the immigrants are not the only ones cut off, as native French themselves seem to have little clue about the lives of immigrants on the fringes, even today.
Throughout the film, Kassovitz highlights problems within French society: its stubborn stance on continuing to ignore its “immigrant problem” and failure in taking initiative to integrate them in a functioning society. Kassovitz later reflected in the aftermath of the November 2005 riots, condemning interior minster at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, for calling the rioters “scum” and blaming the violence on a lack of respect for the immigrant communities (Kassovitz). And in 2008, when conditions in Paris’ slums had failed to improv Sarkozy promised a “merciless war” against rioters and stated that “those who don’t want to do anything, the state will not do anything for them” (“Sarkozy”). Ironic, as surely Kassovitz would agree, the statement can go both ways; if the French government is concerned that those living in the slums don’t uphold French values, they should take a look in inwards as well. What they would see is that if they are unwilling to uphold their own values when it comes to the treatment of immigrants, they should not expect an invitation for coffee from the immigrant population either.
The film at its end offers a somber glimpse into the future through the voice of Hubert, followed by the sound of gunshot: “It’s about a society falling…On the way down it keep telling itself: So far so good…so far so good…so far so good…How you fall doesn’t matter. It’s how you land!” (Kassovitz). That landing has yet to be fully realized, but without mutual understanding and a true, heartfelt desire for not just coexistence between French society and immigrants, but mutual respect and acceptance, that landing is more likely to be an crash, (witnessed in 2005) rather than a perfect ten.
Works Cited
Kassovitz, Mathieu, Dir. La Haine. Canal: 1995, Film. Kassovitz, Mathieu.
“It’s hard not to cheer on the rioters.” The Gaurdian (2005). http://www.guardian.co.uk. Web. 5 April 2011.
Kirszbaum, Thomas, Yaël Brinbaum and Patrick Simon, with Esin Gezer (2009), ‘The Children of Immigrants in France: The Emergence of a Second Generation‘, Innocenti Working Paper, no. 2009–13, Florence, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.
Hargreaves, Alec. Multi-ethnic France. Routledge, 2007. Print. Lucassen, Leo. The Immigrant Threat. Chicago: University of Illinois, 2005. Print.
“Paris Riots Spread to 20 Suburbs.” Fox News (2005). www.foxnews.com. Web. 5 April 2011.
“Sarkozy declares ‘merciless war’ on drug gangs and traffickers in £300m plan.” The Daily Mail (2008) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/. Web. 5 April 2011.
Sciolino, Elaine. “Anger Festering in French Areas Scarred in Riots.” The New York Times (2006). Web. 5 April 2011.
