The movie takes us to economically and socially poor suburbs of France. Where the riot took place, and mayhem overtook the territory. The movie shows the big social problems between social and national groups in France. Police, social groups, skinheads. Chaos and fear is in the air...
The movie itself starts with the views from the riot with a soundtrack of Bob Marley - Burnin' and Lootin', straight away you can feel the music and view crossover and the mind set in the beginning.
The main characters of the movie - jew Vince, afro-american - Hubert and an arab - Said are involved straight away to complicated relations with the Police, skinheads while one of their friends Abdel was majorly injured in an accident while conflicting the law enforcement. This takes one of the characters - Vince, to the point when he says : Eye for an eye, and if his friend dies he will kill a police officer.
The whole is in black and white, where you can see the racial difference between people, and the sides between police and the rioters, when this is one of the most essential things in the movie, the side that you are one. Using close up's and establishing shots the director builds up the tension and slowly brings it up to the peak. But the point when you thing it's going to reach it, tension calms down and comes back only in the end of the movie... the last shots. In addition to that on of the other tools that Mathieu Kassovitz uses is the time reminder, that gives you a feeling that the time is being counted, but being counted until what? So when the last scene is taking place the time change is only 1minute, but the you realise how much can change in one minute...
Kassovitz convey the violence and the the police, that constantly follows around the young generation, the differences between social layers and groups. How the main characters struggle in many ways to achieve something, or just to live their lives what leeds them to a different behavior where the brutal strength or aggression is the only option to interact with people.
clock shows that the time is being counted... but to what? the confrontation , the hate towards police
