Transporting Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) to the French banlieues, Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine (Hate) wowed the 1995 Cannes festival with its unflinching portrait of racial tension and generational poverty. The bond between three young friends — one Jewish, one African, one Arabic — is tested in the aftermath of race riots and skinhead fights. In our post-Wire landscape, some of the film's plot mechanics (especially the ending) may seem a little unrealistic. But the gutsy performances and photography (all high-contrast black and white and wide-angle distortion) elevate La Haine high above most "in the ghetto" social-realism films.