On the tracks of La Haine
in Paris’ Suburbs

We are thrilled that Magnum Photos has entered an editorial partnership with Summer of Solidarity to bring you amazing photo essays from its network of photographers across Europe.
Each week, we will be publishing a ‘Magnum Monday’: a vivid and in-depth exploration of people and places by legendary photographers, who will also be adding a personal text.

Twenty-five years after the release of the cult movie on French Suburbs, La Haine, which was shot by Mathieu Kassovitz in Chanteloup-les-Vignes, Lorenzo Meloni revisited the town which used to be one of Paris' toughest suburban neighbourhoods.

With high unemployment, the absence of public transportation, general dirtiness, and only basic shops, in the 1990s, riots were part of daily life there. 

Today, Chanteloup-les-Vignes has become a model for a new experiment in urban policy, with a new population settling in and some who left the place years ago now willing to return.

After a period of confinement that was experienced by the youth with difficulties, the impossibility to travel this summer will leave children and adolescents idle.

For Lorenzo Meloni, « the atmosphere of the place is still very present even if over the years a process of rehabilitation of the suburbs of Paris has renewed part of the architecture. Today, the suburbs of Paris still remain a place for citizens who are considered less citizens than the others as they mostly come from poor or migrant families. 

After 25 years from La Haine, a new film has been released called "Les Misérables" which tells a story in part very similar, a symbol that even if the architectures are changing the stories of poverty and hardship of the people who live in these areas do not change. »