La Haine

Responsible for causing a scandal on its domestic release, this bruising portrait of disaffected youth confirmed its writer/director Mathieu Kassovitz as the wunderkind of French cinema. Presenting the housing schemes on the outskirts of Paris as hotbeds of racial hatred and social unrest, the film follows three lads from different ethnic backgrounds and explores how they spend their endless spare time and their response to a case of police brutality. Vincent Cassel is outstanding as the Jewish skinhead, but it's Kassovitz's restless camerawork and a script as funny as it is hard-hitting that make this such an impressive and important work.