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Certificate and duration:

15, 97 minutes

Language(s) of soundtrack:

French

Starring:

Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili, Solo, Joseph Momo, Héloïse Rauth, Rywka Wajsbrot, Olga Abrego, Laurent Labasse, Choukri Gabteni.

Year:

1995

DVD release date:

19 February 2001

Studios:

Optimum

Topic(s):

Patterns of family life; issues relating to countries where the language is spoken

Theme(s):

Exclusion, integration and immigration

Possible supplementary resources:

University of Sunderland: information on La Haine (English)

University of Sunderland: information on Les années banlieue (English)

Lesson starter:

Ask students to describe where they live in simple terms:

• 'Qu’est-ce qu’il y a à faire dans ta ville?'
• 'Descris ta rue/la rue principale de ta ville ou de ton village.'      

Now ask students to use the same questions to describe their impressions of Paris, either imaginary or through experience. At this point you may consider using excerpts of the film Amélie to confirm the answers they are likely to produce or give one side of the story should ideas be lacking: 'La tour Eiffel, des jolies rues…'

Initial task:

Ask students to write these thoughts down:

• a paragraph in the present tense about where they live
• a paragraph in the conditional tense on what they feel their surroundings would resemble if they were to live in Paris.         

You may ask this to be used to support a small presentation to the rest of the class.

The film:

The film lasts just over 90 minutes. After each period’s showing (two or three periods) leave time to ask the students to write down their thoughts on what they have seen so far. This is so that their changing opinions are noted. You may also want to include any vocabulary at this point that you feel is important, either from the film or that, while watching the film, you consider important for future discussions.

Task:

Following the film it is worth discussing what the students feel the main stakes are. You may wish to run with some of their ideas before falling back on some concrete texts on the topics of immigration and integration. Scholar contains such texts, as do textbooks such as Réalisations (p.26). Do some simple reading comprehension to drive home the concepts woven into the film: intégration, assimilation, rejet.

There is an MFLE Listening passage with two points of view on immigration.

Pupils should now begin to form some directed writing on the interconnected themes of immigration, integration and exclusion. To help you direct and inform discussions, the University of Sunderland links provide background to La Haine and to French film, and to the French understanding of 'la banlieue'.

Other tasks:

Depending on the language ability of your students at the time of watching the film you may wish to integrate other tasks such as:

• a critical review of the film
• a comparative essay between La Haine and Amélie and their presentations of Paris and Parisians
• a comparative essay based on people’s assumptions about Paris and the reality of one side of Paris presented in La Haine
• a 'report' to digital video camera where students recount the events in La Haine. This could also include 'quotes' from a 'French politician', a 'local resident' and 'outsider', and a 'tourist'.       

This lesson is just a starting point. Share your ideas in the Film forum.

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