Towner Cine Club: La Haine

Towner Cine Club is a chance for you to catch classic films back on the big screen, all presented with an introduction by Henry Jordan. Whether it’s arthouse oddities, cult classics, old favourites or new discoveries, we’ll be showing something exciting every month at Towner Cinema.

Henry Jordan works at Towner as a Duty Manager and helps with the day-to-day operations of the cinema, as well as hosting Towner Cine Club. He studied English and Film Studies at University of Exeter, which included a study abroad year that he took at University of South Florida in Tampa, USA. During Henry’s time at university, he discovered his core fields of interest, among them para-cinema, surrealism and anti-literature.

Before Towner, Henry worked at the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge, where he was a regular host for their sell out quiz nights and hosted a Q&A with Dame Pippa Harris for her film Empire of Light. He also was a regular on the Cambridge Film Show, has been published in The Quietus and still writes for The Quite Nerdy Blog, his blog about pop culture that has been running since 2014.

Mathieu Kassovitz’s sensational second feature changed the cultural landscape of French cinema when it first screened in 1995. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, La Haine is a lasting and prescient study of social and economic divides and a hugely influential modern classic.

Based on real events, it follows three friends (Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui) over the course of one day in the banlieue outside Paris in the aftermath of a riot. With tension in the air and the police on constant surveillance, it isn’t long before prejudice and hostility lead to violence, with tragic consequences. 

“La Haine has lost none of its punch” ★★★★★ Empire

"In 1995, Mathieu Kassovitz threw a Molotov cocktail at the cinema establishment and over thirty years later, its energy rages on just as bright as ever. La Haine manages the extraordinary feat of being a hangout comedy, a taut social thriller and a devastating tragedy all in one, a film that will stay with you long after it cuts to black."