In this film, shot by cinematographer Agnès Godard, Claire Denis uses the handheld camera for the first time to explore the raw, claustrophobic world of two friends from the Antilles and Benin (Alex Descas and Isaach De Bankolé) who decide to take part to take part in illegal cockfighting in a suburb of Paris.  
"During the camera tests, I thought we had to move together with the actors. That’s when we decided to mount the camera on the shoulder. At the same time I thought, in view of the clandestinity of the actors, that I could not film them in a fixed frame, nor with a travelling or traditional dispositif, but that we had to be clandestine with the camera in order to accompany them, as far as possible, even into the space where they trained."