A Prophet

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.

A fascinating look into the French prison system.

A terrific young actor named Tahar Mahim plays Malik, an Arab teenager sentenced to six years in prison. He's drafted by a Corsican gang that practically runs the prison to kill a fellow Muslim inmate who plans to act as a witness as part of a plea bargain. Once he does that he earns protection from the Corsicans, even though they continue to treat him like a servant because he's Arab, but because of their protection he's able to use his wiles to rise through the criminal ranks and emerge from the prison a major crime boss.

"Un Prophete" uses the prison setting to serve as a microcosm of French culture and current racial conflicts between the French and Arab immigrants. Mahim isn't educated, but he's smart, and he knows that to declare allegiance to either side is to limit his ultimate potential. Mahim gives an amazing, unshowy performance; it's largely because of him that the scene in which he carries out the hit is such a nail biter.

One brief scene late in the film suggests that there might be a literal meaning to the film's title, but overall the meaning is thematic -- Malik becomes a prophet to his people, but his story illustrates that not all messages carried to us from prophets are necessarily positive ones.

Grade: A

This was one of the first French film I have ever watched. I decided to give it a go.

Initially I wasn't holding out much hope when I placed the DVD into my drive, I was wrong.

The film is a hard hitting which keeps you gripped and awaiting the clever plot, it doesn't not disappoint and the way in which the plot unfolds is clever as well as realistic. The actors do a very good job and the main actor is especially good, the white mob boss is also a superb actor.

The film is about an Arab who enters jail after a life of trouble. He soon becomes gripped into the underworld of gang violence, he then joins a white gang whilst carrying out jobs for them. Whilst he cleverly starts to build his own empire.

Go watch this film now, sometimes I don't watch films if I have not seen reviews or thousands of votes here on IMD. Trust me on this film, one of the best films I have seen in a long time and I am sure you will not be disappointed.

At times hard to watch but in the end you come out with the feeling of having watched a masterpiece.

Perfect acting, scenario, directing, cinematography & sound...

This is definitely not a Hollywood production, but the best of what french cinema can be.

Audiard is a great director, having previously made "Read my lips" which i also recommend.

The main actor Tahar Rahim is a revelation, keep an eye on him in the future.

Niels Arestrup is also quite good in his role as a corsican crime boss

One of the truly great films of 2010, "A Prophet" is an unforgettable account of a young man's experiences in a French prison.

Malik El Djebena is only 19 when he's sentenced to six years in prison for a crime he claims he didn't commit. Though an Arab, Malik becomes the cat's-paw for an aging Corsican mob boss named Cesar Luciani whose influence in the prison has begun to wane as more and more Muslims are brought in to swell the prisoner ranks. Eventually, the ever-resourceful Malik finds a way to straddle the lines separating the various factions in the prison, while at the same time partnering with his buddy to run a hashish operation when he's out on his frequent 24-hour leaves.

The beauty of "A Prophet" is that we really get the sense that, had he been dealt a halfway decent hand in life, Malik might have actually been a kind, caring person, instead of the lost soul that he's become. But the lack of any parental influence in his life, his illiteracy, and now his consignment to prison life have left him with few viable options other than to become involved in mayhem and crime. He's horrified by the fact that, as a kind of loyalty test early on, Luciani forces him to murder in cold blood a man he doesn't know and might even like under other circumstances. And there are heartbreaking moments throughout where we sense the goodness in Malik's tortured soul. His appreciation of simple kindnesses, his attempts at learning to read, his childlike wonder as he looks out of a plane window for the first time, his tenderness with a buddy's newborn son - all go a long way towards mitigating some of the truly despicable acts of violence and murder he's called upon to do. The brilliant screenplay wisely refuses to judge Malik; it simply presents the options and parameters that have been given to him by fate, society, nature, what have you - and watches as he maneuvers through, in and around them in order to survive.

Harsh and brutal as this film can be at times - for it never shies away from portraying what life is like in a prison setting - it is in those more lyrical moments, the ones in which we are allowed to see into the heart of this young man, that "A Prophet" achieves true masterpiece status.

Tahar Rahim rises to the challenge in a brilliantly understated, award-worthy performance as Malik, capturing our sympathy and concern throughout. Niels Arestrup is also outstanding as the brutal and demanding Luciani, as is Adel Bencherif as Malik's one friend from prison who serves as both a positive and a negative influence on the young man.

Directed with unerring conviction and power by Jacques Audiard, "A Prophet" is a cinematic work of art - and a movie not to be missed.