Skip to main content

Politics & Power Quote by Mathieu Kassovitz

"Well, a special screening was set up for government officials, so they didn't have to see the experience of going to see the film. They certainly aren't going to the projects to see for themselves the situation"

About this Quote

Kassovitz skewers the state’s preferred way of knowing: at a safe remove, pre-filtered, and socially disinfected. The jab lands in the casual phrasing, almost tossed off, but it’s surgical. A “special screening” isn’t just a logistical courtesy; it’s a metaphor for governance by VIP access, where power preserves itself from the very conditions it claims to manage. They “didn’t have to see the experience” is the killer clause. He’s not talking about plot comprehension. He’s talking about the ritual of exposure: buying a ticket, sitting among strangers, being forced into proximity with the public mood. Officials want the message without the mingling.

The context is Kassovitz as a director associated with La Haine and its portrait of banlieue life: alienation, policing, boredom that curdles into volatility. His point isn’t that politicians are ignorant in the abstract; it’s that ignorance is engineered. The screening becomes an institutional workaround, a way to consume representation of marginalized spaces while avoiding the spaces themselves. “The projects” functions as both place and accusation: the state will study the periphery like a problem set, but won’t cross the invisible border to witness the human reality it produces.

Subtextually, Kassovitz is indicting a feedback loop: officials retreat from lived experience, rely on mediated summaries, then craft policy that further entrenches distance. It’s not just hypocrisy; it’s a structural refusal of contact, packaged as professionalism.

Quote Details

TopicEquality
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Kassovitz, Mathieu. (2026, January 15). Well, a special screening was set up for government officials, so they didn't have to see the experience of going to see the film. They certainly aren't going to the projects to see for themselves the situation. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/well-a-special-screening-was-set-up-for-155596/

Chicago Style
Kassovitz, Mathieu. "Well, a special screening was set up for government officials, so they didn't have to see the experience of going to see the film. They certainly aren't going to the projects to see for themselves the situation." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/well-a-special-screening-was-set-up-for-155596/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Well, a special screening was set up for government officials, so they didn't have to see the experience of going to see the film. They certainly aren't going to the projects to see for themselves the situation." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/well-a-special-screening-was-set-up-for-155596/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Mathieu Add to List
Special Screening for Officials: Kassovitzs Critique
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

France Flag

Mathieu Kassovitz (born August 3, 1967) is a Director from France.

8 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes