Critically acclaimed French crime-drama, A Prophet details the prison career of Malik el Djebena (Tahar Rahim), a 19-year-old man of North African origin who learns the ropes of the Cosican mob and becomes a criminal kingpin from within prison walls.
Winner of the Best Foreign Film BAFTA 2010, and nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscar at the 2010 Academy Awards.
Moviemakers just love jails – it’s the caged violence, the colourful backstories, the satisfying narrative arc of being caught, incarcerated then released. But while Shawshank remains the most beloved of the genre, A Prophet is by far the most believable – and you’ll find no redemption within these walls.
A tough little punk pretending to be a man, Malik (the brilliantly empathetic Rahim) finds himself in a world of shifting allegiances, leering faces and sudden spurts of violence. It’s a prison of the soul as much as of the body, and Audiard juxtaposes the prosaic (laundry, cards, masturbation) with the dramatic (drugs, beatings, bribes) to evoke the daily drip, drip, drip of boredom intermingling with fear. Only one thing doesn’t ring true: do French prisoners really get their own baguettes every day?
In a brutal way, it’s quite beautiful, with bleached sunlight puncturing the endless institutional grey. It’s also terrifying – literally kill or be killed. Like a young Michael Corleone, Malik plays the Arabs off against the Corsican mob of Cesar Luciani (Arestup), a bulldog of a man with homicidal levels of self-belief. But Malik’s a perpetual outsider straddling two warring worlds, and there’s no telling who might be heading towards his cell to scheme with – or suffocate – him next.
Like Goodfellas without the visual fizz, or Scarface played straight, this is, quite simply, one of the greatest prison films ever made. An unforgettable early sequence sees Malik concealing a razor blade in his mouth. Throughout Audiard’s tough, tense, and immersive opus you’ll know exactly how he feels.
By Matt Glasby, Flicks.co.nz
fantastic film. Enough said.
Really enjoyed it. A bit long but really enjoyed it. The storyline kind of gets you and you evolve with it and end up thinking how the main characters got to where they did. I'm not an arty movie person but there are some good subtitled stuff coming out and this is one of them.
It doesn't move quickly this film, but it moves with a deliberate, measured, artful pace. Shot naturalistically, with moments of surrealisim, this is a movie for lovers of performance, structure, and tone. It took me about an hour to really warm to it, and then I was there, fully in the pocket with the lead. Three central performances anchor the film: the lead, his "mentor", and the lead's friend on the outside. All are excellent. With the mentor the most fascinating to watch. Also fascinating is the intimate, truthful world that the director has constructed. This film is essentially an art-house prison flick. It has an interesting, active lead. And an appalling, fear-inducing antagonist for him to rail against. It also has a strong soundtrack, and a sense of the epic - of a giant tale well told. Inevitably, in NZ right now, this film will be compared to ANIMAL KINGDOM as they are both playing. Kingdom has more tension and is more relateable because of it's Australian setting. It is also more deliberately, self-consciously "cinematic". The Prophet, however, is the more complete film. Regardless, these two films are a rare duo - crime-dramas that actually matter...
The best performance in the film is by Arestrup as Cesar. You may remember him from Audiard's "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" (2005), where he played a seedy but confident father who psychically overshadows his son.
A searing and stunning look at life behind bars.
A modern French crime epic where the smudges and crossings out do not diminish the passages of great dreamlike power.
What's most immediately remarkable about the film is the raw intensity of its hyper-realistic encounters, hugely enhanced by the superb acting of newcomer Rahim.
To borrow a marketing phrase from another, very different film, A Prophet really is the movie that reminds you why you love the movies. Especially movies like this one.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 9th Sep 2010.
Release date: September 9th 2010.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
