He expresses the wish to simply leave this world of violence and hate behind him, but does not know how since he lacks the means to do so. The quietest, most thoughtful and wisest of the three, he sadly contemplates the ghetto and the hate around him. Hubert ( Hubert Koundé) is an Afro-French boxer and small-time drug dealer, the most mature of the three, whose gymnasium was burned in the riots. His attitude towards police, for instance, is a simplified, stylized blanket condemnation, even to individual policemen who make an effort to steer the trio clear of troublesome situations. He sees himself as a gangster ready to win respect by killing a Police man, manically practising the role of Travis Bickle from the film Taxi Driver in the mirror secretly. Vinz ( Vincent Cassel), who is Jewish, is filled with rage.
The film depicts approximately 20 consecutive hours in the lives of three friends in their early twenties from immigrant families living in an impoverished multi-ethnic French housing project (a ZUP – zone d'urbanisation prioritaire) in the suburbs of Paris, in the aftermath of a riot.
