De bruit et de fureur (1988)

When his grandmother dies, Bruno, a dreamy 13-year-old, returns with his canary to a housing estate in Bagnolet, in the Paris suburbs. Often alone, he lavishes his affection on the bird, which in his imagination turns into a falcon, accompanied by a sensual, maternal woman. His academic level is too low, so he enrolls in a lower secondary school (CES). There he meets his neighbor Jean-Roger, the terror of the school, and learns about the violence of life in the suburbs: intimidating people at their school, choosing victims to attack, and, above all, brutally attacking a rival gang with his group of delinquents. Bruno gets to know his homeroom teacher, who takes him under her wing. Jean-Roger admires his father, Marcel, a former soldier who has become a gangster. Jean-Roger also lives with his mother, his uncle, and his paternal grandfather, who dies of an illness. Jean-Roger is jealous of his brother Thierry and of the relationship he has with a journalist. Jean-Roger and his gang rape the young woman. Thierry intervenes, but he is beaten with truncheons and captured by the gang. His father comes to his rescue, armed with a rifle, and kills three of the people who took part in beating Thierry. Jean-Roger, who has a pistol, shoots back and kills his father. Bruno's canary, which had escaped from the apartment, is killed by Jean-Roger. Bruno finds the dead canary and the pistol Jean-Roger, drunk, has left behind; devastated by the death of his only true friend, Bruno turns the gun on himself and commits suicide. Jean-Roger ends up in prison at the Fleury-Mérogis remand center, from where he writes a letter to his former homeroom teacher.