This was released 25 years ago, but still feels relevant. Especially with what is going on in America (once again), with the killing of George Floyd. Now the movie does not concentrate on Black Lives Matter (the movement did not exist back then), but focuses on police brutality, a seemlingless inescapable path french youth in certain areas was facing (probably still are facing).

The perfomances are quite stunning and while we do have the youth we concentrate on, there are some diverse views on how to act or where to go. The youth, the characters we follow are prisoners ... they are what society and circumstances made them. There are cultural references to movies for exmaple, be it Scarface "World is yours", Taxi Driver "talking to me" to name but two. The latter is not quoted correctly if the french translation of what is being said is to be believed. But that makes it better, many missquote movies or make them their own. Vincent Cassel is not spoofing De Niro, he makes it a short but powerful moment in the movie.

And that is just the beginning. The three friends, different but yet with a core feeling of being sidelined, of not being heard, of being minimalized, is quite intriguing. You feel for them and yet it is very likely you will hate some of their actions. Instead of cancelling them though, how could we help them? The movie does not suggest solutions in that regard. It almost works like a documentary. A gritty, brutal one, that some may call bleak ...