Le Prophète

It's difficult to simply judge the film without passing some judgment on the content of Gibran's poetry, which, in the context of the film, sounds even more like self-help advice. So those who like spiritualism, practical philosophy, and one man's interesting (then and still now) take on the world will probably find the content pretty awesome. For the rest of us, as I said, at times, it sounds a bit like self-help stuff, or new age stuff that is not new at all. Interestingly, a lot of the stuff about labor and work sounded very much like the stuff the Soviets would love (don't know if he was popular in the USSR).

The film attempts to tell the story of Mustafa, who is been on house arrest for seven years and is finally being released (deported back to his own country). The details of how he came to be in this other country are fuzzy, but it is clear that he is a poet, painter, and philosopher, and his ideologies have landed him in this bind. Mustafa befriends Almitra, who has stopped speaking since her father died a year ago. Almitra's mom does the housework for Mustafa under the (clumsy) watch of Halim (or Halil?) Everyone loves Mustafa. Townsfolk loves him. The cleaning lady and the kid love him. Even the guard loves him. There is a very clear distinction between good and evil here, which will appeal to younger children, and maybe not so much to the older crowd. So Mustafa is taken through the town (mistake!) to the boat that is supposed to take him back, but needless to say, things don't turn out that way at all. There is some strong imagery here (complete with a firing squad, but we only hear them fire).

I think most of the content is out of reach of most younger children. The stuff about love and life, about how parents do not own their children got through to the kids who were watching around me in the theater. I was surprised that even the youngest did not fall asleep, as some parts were just Mustafa speaking about stuff. I believe this s due to the amazing animation work by many great artists.

If Gibran's work does not interest you at all, I still would say this is a must see, if you like animation art. There's great stuff here. I dare say something for every taste and preference in terms of animation art.

All in all, it was a great film to see on the big screen. Animation was top notch and engaging (as the kids around me proved it). The story involving Almitra also appealed to the children, i think, though not to me as much. Mustafa's story is a classic case of denial of and persecution of freedom of speech; it is good to see something like this being made.