Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service with me Stephen Sacker. My guest today is a French

actor and director who shot to fame in his 20s by making a film which shocked his home country

and won him acclaim around the world. Mathieu Kassivitz was born into moviemaking. His father, Peter, was a Hungarian-Jewish

immigrant to France, who established himself as a successful director. Mathieu was determined to

follow suit, and his 1995 film, La Ene, Hate, was a gritty, no-holds-barred depiction of inequality,

racial tension and police brutality in a neglected Paris suburb.

It won M Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival and opened doors in Hollywood.

In the three decades since, Mathieu Kassavitz has directed a host of movies

and built a reputation as an actor, most memorably in the hit movie Amelie, and a star of the

long-running hit TV series, The Bureau, which won big audiences around the world.

Kassavitz has always spoken his mind on issues of class and race,

which underpinned Laen, but also on other sensitive topics, from drugs to misogyny and

abuse inside the movie business. He remains a powerful cultural voice in a country

riven by bitter arguments over its values and identity.

So what's his take on where France is now and where it's going?

Mathieu Kassavits, welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you for having me.

It is three decades since you made La En hate.

I'm sure you would love to believe that that film is like a museum piece, like it's no longer relevant.

But does it feel that way to you?

No, I would love to think the opposite.

I would love to think that each of my movies are relevant forever and will

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