A Prophet

A juvenile delinquent named Malik (Tahar Rahim) goes to prison after spending most of his up-growing in juvenile correctional facilities. Malik soon learns that he's no longer a small fish in an aquarium, but a fry in an ocean. And swimming with the big fish is quite a different state of affairs as he is bound to discover.

Pic's protagonist is recruited by the Corsican gang and being an Arab by appearance (granted, apparently not religiously), he continues to live as an outsider of not only society but also fellow inmates as he has done most of his life. But he continues to float and find his way behind the bars.

In the exquisite direction of Jaques Audiard, the film accelerates well through good character development and profound script. The education of Malik is in my opinion one of the main pillar of the film because it is an education on so many levels. Of least to get ahead in business. Dirty business, granted, but it is business nonetheless.

It's the small things that distinguishes this little gem from many other movies on prison culture. It has to be, Audiard knows this and has created yet another great piece of cinema for his fans.

Un Prophète :: Jacques Audiard :: France :: 2008 : 2h35

A young man is being admitted into prison. The scars on his body and face betray a violent past. He can barely read and write. He has no friends. Malik (Tahar Rahim) is 19 years old. Out on the concrete courtyard, he is recruited by the ruthless Corsican mafioso César (Niels Arestrup) to kill a rival passing through their prison. Malik is beaten into submission. His life could have ended right there and then. But that is not how it was to be. Malif comes out the corner fighting.

Most of the film is concrete slabs and dirt. There is the constant murmur of the rumours passed around in Arabic and Corsican if it is not in banlieue slang French. And then there is the violence. Nobody gets punished because nobody interferes. Even when inmates get killed there is no indication that they are being investigated. The detainees are all on their own. We do see the state's legal machinery operating in the background with lawyers and judges shifting paper. We see the inmates work in the prison factory sowing clothes. We see the willing bullies being schooled. But the penitentiary staff shine mostly in their absence. Malik knows it is going to be a long 6 years.

He takes what he can get, and tries to make the best of himself. He could have made an excellent career for himself in the army, if life had been different. He has the adaptability, the patience, the dedication, the intelligence and the lack of moral restraint to make it far, in the right framework. If only he had been in an organisation which could contain and direct him, rather than unleash him, as prison did. We see him slowly becoming a man to be reckoned with, creating his own new order. Make no mistake, this young man is taking you along to the bitter end.

Un Prophète is a tough film to watch, but immaculately constructed. I can not claim to have captured the full finesse of the all the criminal dealings, but it does not matter. The audience is thrown into the story as the young Malik is. Thrown in, to live it with him. And live it, you will. It is a masterfully made film with a clever script, an excellent cast and a surprising attention to detail. A rare pearl in the genre, bound to be as rewarded as director Audiard's previous De Battre mon coeur s'est arrêté, which won no less than 8 Césars! (incitatus.org)

¨In exchange I offer you protection; If you don't kill him, I'll kill you. ¨ Jacques Audiard directs this great French prison film which is perhaps the best gangster movie I've seen since The Goodfellas. It has some great scenes combining violent action sequences with a character driven plot. Audiard has created a masterpiece; the entire film takes place mostly in the prison and he worked with ex convicts in order to set the right mood. Un Prophete (A Prophet) was nominated for Best Foreign Film in the Oscars and lost to the Argentinean movie, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, which was also a great character driven film. Audiard not only directed the film, but he also co-wrote the adaptation of the script along with Thomas Bidegain. It is an interesting character study on how an innocent man gets involved with the wrong people and becomes entangled in a life of crime. There is something symbolic about his illiteracy as he learns how to read in prison, and he also learns how the mob works by serving and getting involved with them, therefore the prison became his school both in a positive and negative way. When I watched this movie I couldn't help but compare several scenes with such classic movies as Scarface, The Godfather and The Goodfellas. This movie does have its flaws, for instance, women are depicted poorly as the few female characters are either prostitutes or weak minded, but the story makes up for it along with the lead actors who give terrific performances.

A nineteen year old Franco-Arab, named Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), has just been sent to prison for six years in Brecourt for assaulting a police officer. He is alone in prison without any friends and has to learn how to survive. At first he tries to stay in the down low, but solitary convicts are the easiest prey. The prisoners are divided in two groups, the Muslims on the one hand and the Corsicans, who seem to be in control of the prison because they have several connections with the guards, on the other. Malik is an Arab, but he doesn't practice their religion so he doesn't seem to fit with the Muslims and he isn't Corsican either. Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup) is the leader of the Corsicans inside the prison and after a new Arab prisoner arrives who happens to be a key witness against one of them, Cesar has to find a way of killing him before the trial. The problem is that since he is an Arab he can't get to close to him and therefore realizes that Malik is the right person for the job. The Corsicans force Malik to kill him and offer protection in return, although Malik doesn't really have an option because if he doesn't comply they will kill him. Malik, despite being an Arab, begins serving the Corsicans and little by little wins the confidence of Cesar, although he is seen by the rest of the mobsters as a dirty Arab. Malik begins learning how to read and befriends his teacher, Ryad (Adel Bencherif), and at the same time he begins learning Corsican and the mobster lifestyle. Little by little Malik begins to learn more about criminal life and slowly begins to rise. He is not the same person he was when he arrived at the prison.

Un Prophete has a very interesting plot, but it works in the most part because of the great performances given by the lead actors Tahir Rahim and Niels Arestrup who are just outstanding and very believable in their roles. The success of a character driven movie depends most of the time on the actors, and newcomer Tahir Rahim gives an Oscar worthy performance. The movie is about two and a half hours long and requires your full attention because of the parallel action sequences, but the movie doesn't seem to drag at any point and it never gets to a point where you begin to lose interest. Un Prophet is an excellent film and one you will enjoy. It is definitely worth your time so I recommend you check this movie out.

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The storyline of this film is well documented by other reviewers. I read the reviews at 2.30 this afternoon and by 5 PM I was in the local cinema. I wondered if I could survive 150 minutes but I found myself at the end wishing to know more, and rather regretting the end of this fascinating movie. I am not an expert review writer but I found the character portrayals so realistic that they nearly jumped out of the screen. Yes there is violence, bloody in parts, but it is so monumentally well filmed I could look away from the gore and towards the film as a work of art. If there was a mixture of amateur and professional actors, I could not tell the difference.

The names and functions of some of the various characters were lost on me but I got the general gist of it and I was motivated to consider the effect on the psychology of an unremitting regime of politics and violence. There is much food for thought here and I can unreservedly recommend it to all but the most squeamish.

The problem with praise is that so much is said and so much is built up that at times it can be quite imposing for me to approach a film to watch it for what it is. This happened with A Prophet, which is why it took me over a year to get around to watching it. The uniformly great praise and the awards all built this film up in my head as something that would be worthy, perhaps a little arty and maybe even deliberately inaccessible (which can be the case with some films that critics gush over – partly I think it makes them appear smart). Also, lest we forget, it is also in French and runs to almost two and a half hours long. However I decided it had been on my queue for far too long as it was and recently I sat to watch it.

What I found was not an art film, not a pretentious film, not a "foreign" film but rather just a really well told story of a young man falling into a life of crime but then climbing and scheming his way up it. The rather breathless manner in which the film has been discussed doesn't do it any favours because, if you ignore all the words, the film is just this and it does it very well indeed. The Malik at the start of the film is very different from the Malik in the later stages, even though only a few years have passed. The difference is very well handled and we see him grow in his abilities, his confidence and also his ruthlessness. All of this occurs in a consistent flow of narrative that begins with him being forced into a violent act (one that stays with him) but then making himself useful and starting his own things on the side. In terms of narrative events it is very well structured and easy to follow, but it is the emotional journey that adds layers to it.

I read one critic compare the journey from (comparative) innocence to that taken by Michael Corleone in The Godfather and, while the details are more low-key and grubby, it is a fair comparison. Malik is fascinating as he stresses himself sick over his first kill, but just as fascinating when playing the odds with the various factions he straddles with influence. He is never free of beatings or risk, but he engages in the way he deals with it all with confidence and a growing willingness to do what is required. Director Audiard delivers it all with a range of styles – most of which work. At times it feels very seedy and grey in colour, particularly at the start and the camera sits in corners and watches from afar; this then contrasts with other scenes where it owes a debt to Scorsese in the use of music and montages (Malik being put in role of porter to the sound of Nas being a sudden but effective change in style). I wasn't really feeling the use of words on the screen – it didn't seem to add much and it did feel a bit too derivative, but other than this I had no complaints.

The performances are mostly very strong. The standout is of course Rahim in the lead role; he convinces in his journey and he pitches his development just right across the film – never going too far from who he is, not becoming a different person, but just showing growth and change in small but important ways. Arestrup is nearly as good as the cruel but fading lord of the prison while Bencherif, Yacoubi and many others make convincing supports. The world of the prison also feels very real and very threatening and even the extras add to the feeling of the place.

A Prophet is a great film: a crime story with strong characters, well developed plot and a constant feel of risk and threat without being over the top or losing touch with the gritty real feel of the prison world. Directed with style (but not too much style) the film uses the cast well and produces a roundly engaging and satisfying story. Perhaps a bit too over-hyped and made out to be way more than it is, it is still very much seeing and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Goodfellas and other such crime stories.