La Haine: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: For Everyone?
(Kassovitz, 1995) Liberty. Equality. Fraternity. Those are the three pledges that the tricolour flag of France promises their citizens. In the 1990’s, a period of substantial migration from previously colonised French nations, these pledges were challenged due to riots and unrest across France. These riots came from the Banlieue districts, specifically the youth who were being victimised by their government and law enforcement. Due to this chaos swamping much of French culture, filmmakers took a stand to voice their anger at this inequality. It was the shooting of a Maghrebian boy, Makome M’Bowole, by a police officer, that inspired Mathieu Kassovitz to write his tale of inequality and unrest across France (Vincendeau, 2012), La Haine (Kassovitz, 1995). The aim for this post is to study Kassovitz’s text and discover how it relates to the civil disorder, how the promise of the French Flag lied to them and how the Banlieue acted almost as a substitute country. (Kassovitz, 1995...