La Haine & City of God - Time & Place

Firstly, the Opening scene from La Haine immediately sets us in a realistic framework, presenting the time and place that it was set in. Kassovitz uses real footage from the Paris riots from 1982 to 1993, this presents that the riots were on going throughout the time of shooting the film. Kassovitz took his inspiration from a young boy named Makome M’Bowle, who was tortured and shot by police, Therefore Kaasovitz wanted to show the hate of authority through the eyes of the non-French citizens by showing everything in their P.O.V. In the opening sequences we’re shown police attacking the rioters and beating them to the ground, while the rioters attempt to protect themselves with twigs. This allows an immediate pre-conception of the police. Whilst the footage is playing we non diegetically hear Bob Marley’s ‘Burnin’ and lootin’’ playing, this song can be seen as ‘the song of the riots’ therefore people of French origin may see this song as being reminiscent of the riots and provide them with a realistic representation of the riots through music.

The footage switches from being real to fiction in a matter of seconds, allowing us to presume that the film has been set up in a realistic time and place.
After a short fictional news report, we are introduced to the Projects, and the characters. This film was filmed on Location, therefore it is not at all stylised and so presents accurate representation of the location, making the film more realistic. The Projects are home to the ethnic minorities of France, After the French/Algerian war, France was heavily segregated and immigrants were forced into ‘Shanty Towns’ which later became the projects, this forced segregation in France and led the minorities to build up a hatred of French authorities due to historical factors, this means the population of the projects are not accepted into French culture making them feel alienated and unwanted. This is shown through Saids immediate reaction to the police, he writes in the back of their van ‘Screw the police’.

The opening of City of God immediately informs spectators that this film with be violent and dangerous through the images of knives and killing chickens. The Favelas in Rio are well known for their high amount of deaths in just one year, and the authority they hold over the police. The Favela is Ultimately presented as a place that cannot be escaped from and therefore the film was set on location to present this idea. The chicken used in the opening is a metaphor for this. As the chicken tries to escape, Lil Zè instructs the 'runts' to catch the chicken and kill i before it escapes. The idea of no escape in the favelas is baked up by the films motto 'If you run, they will catch you. If you stay, they will catch you' 

The idea of the realism through the time and place in the opening sequence is how the citizens of the Favelas seem to be desensitised by the shooting and the killing that is going on around them.