A ProphetA Prophet
In his labyrinthine portrait of a convict turned kingpin, Jacques Audiard (A Self Made Hero) combines the grittiness of HBO’s Oz with the shifting loyalties of a Leone western. After assaulting a cop, Malik (riveting newcomer Tahar Rahim) earns a six-year prison bid. Though illiterate, the 19-year-old speaks French and Arabic. Instead of congregating with the Muslim inmates, he keeps to himself, providing a perfect target for Mob boss César (Niels Arestrup of Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped), who makes him a Godfather-like offer he can’t refuse: kill Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi), an Arab set to testify against the Corsicans, or meet his maker. Malik decides he would prefer to live (in a surrealistic touch, Reyeb’s ghost will haunt him for the rest of the film). In return, Luciani offers him protection but stops short of treating him like an equal. When Malik isn’t serving coffee and making deliveries, he studies French and Corsu. With what he learns from the mobsters, he befriends two other loners, Ryad (Adel Bencherif) and Jordi the Gypsy (Reda Kateb), and starts a drug-smuggling operation. The years pass, and Malik takes advantage of his parole leaves to work both sides of the fence, and when the authorities transfer César’s crew to a different facility, the balance of power shifts from the aging master to the model student. At 149 minutes, A Prophet feels more like a miniseries than a movie, but there are no dead spots, no wasted moments, resulting in Audiard’s most fully realized vision to date. –Kathleen C. Fennessy
Rating:  List Price: $ 27.96 Price: $ 19.99 |
(out of 9 reviews)
Review by J. Gallegos for A Prophet
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Malik El Djebena enters prison a blank slate of nineteen. Immediately you realize his youth, his vulnerability in a savage, organized world that only sees him as fresh bait. He becomes the means to a murderous end for fellow inmate the Corsican mob and thus begins his descent into its servitude. Ironically, it is his position as their dirty Arab that provides his escape.
Propelled by stellar, stoic acting on Tahar Rahim’s behalf, this story gripped me from blinded beginning to free end. Throughout the film you empathize with Malik. He’s as much if not more a victim of his environment as he is a Machiavellian strategist gripping all opportunities available to him. It’s not always pleasant to watch his endeavors, but they have an authenticity, a type of logic, that is followed until the end.
An amazing film that has made a fan where previously only an aversion to its subject matter existed, Un Prophéte deserves all the praise it gets.
Review by Beardyjin for A Prophet
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Malik was a homeless Arab teen living on the streets of Paris when he’s sent to jail for six years for assaulting a police officer. On the inside, a Corsican crime lord finds Malik’s Arab heritage useful to him and forces Malik to do his “dirty work.” And thus Malik begins to unlock his potential as a criminal mastermind. “A Prophet” is not as epic in scope or as rich in characters as gangster films such as “Goodfellas” or “City of God,” but it is nonetheless an entertaining look at how it took prison to turn one man into a criminal.
The soundtrack is also excellent and highly recommended. It has one of the most original covers of “Mack the Knife” you’ll ever hear.
Review by Andy Orrock for A Prophet
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‘A Prophet’ settles it: Jacques Audiard is the best filmmaker working today. His previous two films (Read My Lips, The Beat That My Heart Skipped) were superb, but ‘A Prophet’ is his best creation so far. For me, it’s the best film of 2009. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film but was beaten out by El Secreto De Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes). I’ll reserve judgment until I see that one, too, but it’s hard to believe it’s a better movie than Audiard’s.
As another reviewer aptly notes on these pages, ‘A Prophet’ has more than subtle shades of ‘The Godfather.’ French Arab Malik (an amazing Tahar Rahim) starts the movie as a callow 19-year-old entering prison. Quickly, he’s selected to carry out a hit by the Corsican gang that rules the prison. The hit itself is excruciatingly intense movie-making. The pressure was suffocating. [At least one fellow movie-goer left the theater and didn't return.]
After carrying out that task, Malik is protected by César Luciani (an equally mesmerizing Niels Arestrup) leader of the Corsicans in prison. In fact, Luciani effectively runs the prison. Thus begins a life for Malik in which the Corsicans see him as an Arab and the Arabs as a Corsican. But Malik proves himself more than an errand boy. As Malik is told by the character Reyeb, “the idea is to come out smarter than you came in.” Reyeb is talking about book-smart intelligence, and – while Malik does take and excel at literacy training – Reyeb’s epigram holds deeper meaning as well. Malik slowly builds confidence, bravado and cunning to the point where he’s running a massively complicated scheme (both in and out of prison) in which he expertly plays off four sides against each other.
As we watch Malik’s transformation, we see the transformation of the prison yard as well. César learns too well that you can’t fight demographics. Starting with a band of 20+ loyalists, he first watches his team gutted by a Sarkozy decree moving a bulk of the Corsicans to another institution. Then, the yard turns more Arab. César starts relying on Malik more than he’d like. And when Malik puts his jaw-dropping in/out double-cross game into play, the last of César’s inner circle turns on itself.
In thinking about this film, I realized just what a massive undertaking Audiard has unfolded story-wise. In even trying to capture the essence of all the critical plot points, this review could easily extend for pages. At the two-hour mark, I thought: “wow, it’s going to take at least another 30 minutes to resolve all this drama.” Sure enough, the movie clocks in at 2 hours 35 minutes. It’s worth every minute of your time to see this masterpiece of cinema.
Review by Balaji Rajam for A Prophet
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Coincidentally, I watched this movie the night of the Oscars. After watching it I couldn’t help feeling that, none of the 10 Best Picture nominees could stand up to this. But if the past is anything to go by, just like the brilliant Gomorrah last year, this will go largely unseen.
It also makes one realize how sanitized our hollywood studio movies have become. A very simple scene of Malik practicing hiding a razor blade inside his mouth is more captivating than anything which the studios have produced in recent times.
The movie is 150 minutes long but the narrative never lags and it is absolutely relentless in moving the story forward.
When the French get things right, they absolutely hit the spot.
Review by Hiram Gomez Pardo for A Prophet
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A prophet is a true masterpiece. It explores the raise and full development of a young newcomer into a prison.
He is just 19 and although he walks alone and tries to stand aloof from the crowd, he will be engaged very soon, when he is “hired” to make a job as part of the well known initiation’s ritual in this human jungle where only the strong survives.
The movie is extremely violent filled of tension. Filmed according the patterns of “cinema verite” with camera in hand exploring the insights of every single movement, detail, grimace. A hopeless environment where nobody is safe and the friendship is absent because only the dark interests prevail.
The film is disturbing but absorbing. A dynamic plot that involves us a Corsican who intends to control the state of things until this huge wave works out as a enormous boomerang against him.
All the deserved awards for this singular masterwork. Admirable and impressing. You will never forget it.
There was a dark and somber film that dealt with a similar plot in the middle seventies (1975) “The brutalizing of Franz Blum” from the renowned German filmmaker Reinhard Hauff. It should be interesting to watch it to establish pertinent comparisons.
Tahar Rahim exhibits punch and actoral force. He reminds me to the young Pacino. He has in the screen a promisory future.