10 Essential Movies You Need To Tick Off Your Bucket List

La Haine (“Hate”) is a vitriolic and urgent French film that remains incredibly relevant. Set in the Parisian suburbs, it opens the day after a riot triggered by the hospitalisation of a young man in police custody. Three young men from immigrant families walk the city which pulsates with the dissolution felt by the poor and those from minority backgrounds.

A riot has recently taken place, and one of the men, Vinz, has come across a police revolver. This is Chekov’s gun writ large: Vinz rails against heavy handed law enforcement, and is looking for a reason to draw down, while his friends Said and Hubert attempt to placate him.

Set in one day, the friends meander around Paris as the city recovers from the previous night’s violence, with the promise of more to come as the hospitalised man’s condition worsens. In stark black and white, the film boldly examines race relations and the cycle of violence, as well as the effects of aggressive policing, as relevant now as it was in 1995.

A Cannes prize winner, La Haine tackles colossal topics without fear, never heavy handed or preachy. A genuinely important film.