Med Hondo’s first feature shot on digital video, Watani follows the respective fates of a black street sweeper and a white bank executive who both lose their jobs on the same day in Paris. The banker has trouble finding work but lies to his wife about his problems and continues to spoil his daughters. Eventually, he falls in with a group of racist thugs at a local bar and starts to tag along with them as they attack blacks and Arabs in the streets at night. The street sweeper, by contrast, is left homeless by his firing and is soon forced to take shelter at a local church when local employment agencies and social service organizations allow him to fall through the cracks. He and his family nonetheless maintain their dignity as they band together with other poor immigrants. Watani became controversial after Hondo publicly contested the French ratings board’s restrictive designation for the film, which cited its violence. The director argued that the violence of the film was merely an honest reflection of the realities it was meant to criticize.