Critics Consensus: La Haine It scored a 100% on the Tomatometer. The Tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. It represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show.

At the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 La Haine was the winner in the category 'Best Director'.

"La Haine, the controversial 1995 drama that held up a mirror to the social ills of modern France, arrived during a dark time in the country’s history. Twenty years on, with a sequel mooted and France again experiencing uncertain times, we reflect on the film’s lasting significance..." (Hussey, 2015).

"Twenty years ago today, February 9, Mathieu Kassovitz’s “La Haine” opened in select theaters and began its theatrical rollout in America. The film was already an international sensation at this point, having sent shockwaves through the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, where it received a prolong standing ovation and the Best Director prize, but nothing could have prepared domestic audiences for the movie’s political and social force that hits like a visceral wrecking ball." (Soules, 2016)

"Aimlessly whiling away their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz, Hubert, and Said - a Jew, African, and an Arab - give human faces to France's immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their social marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point." (Stratton, 2016).