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Bookmark this pageA Prophet (2009)
Director: Jacques Audiard
Movie review
From Time Out London
Filmmakers love a good prison. No, scrub that, filmmakers adore a bad prison. You can see why. For writers and directors, the volatile jail is a ready-made theatre, its prisoners and guards with their various conflicts and loyalties all perfect players for a drama that, if it tries hard enough, can reflect life on the outside too.For French director Jacques Audiard (‘A Self-Made Hero’, ‘The Beat That My Heart Skipped’), a master of the old-school French thriller – ie thrilling and meaningful – his fifth film offers the chance to pull off both a state-of-nation primal scream and a terrific crime flick. He gives us Malik (Tahar Rahim), a French-Arab convict who enters a concrete-and-steel hell to serve a sentence of six years (so we know he can’t have done anything too dreadful). He tries to keep his head down, but this isn’t that sort of place. The ruling bully boys are the Corsican inmates, led by ageing but vicious César (Niels Arestrup), who forces Malik to kill another inmate in a very successful scene that’s one of the most claustrophobic and disturbing episodes I’ve seen in a long while. From here, Malik is César’s vassal, committed to working for him on the inside and, later, using a series of day-release excursions to represent his criminal interests on the outside.
But Malik is a clever individualist – a survivalist even – and at the same time that he learns to read and write, he exploits a friendship with another French-Arab prisoner, now released, to pursue his own drug deals and quietly invest in a power base within the jail. This is a world where partnerships are formed only for a reason, loyalties are fluid, friends barely exist at all. Politically, it’s a cynical film. Hope is absent.
Whether, though, it says anything meaningful about France, I’m not so sure. Malik is an extreme character, so his experience doesn’t reflect the French-Arab dilemma as a whole, even if the point is made about the number of immigrants in French jails and how being sent to prison for a minor offence can snowball into something else entirely. Audiard suggests that being an underdog – socially, racially, economically – in an unfriendly society can lead to desocialisation and anti-social behaviour. But Malik’s story is so wild that it obscures such ideas.
That said, it’s testament to Audiard’s skill at plunging us headfirst into a vicious parallel world that we mostly believe the film’s twisted logic and rituals. Also, his presentation of violence as a profit-and-loss account is effective and mature: while Malik’s initial murder may get him far, we witness nightly visions of his victim coming back to his cell to haunt him. But there are several bite-your-tongue moments. The film is realist in style and mood, but for every five spot-on observations, there is one flight of wild fancy. I’ve seen the film twice and still find baffling an episode in which Malik predicts that a deer will hit a car, thereby suggesting he is a prophet.
But the sheer force of Audiard’s direction can support such enigmas. It forces you, bullies you, persuades you to love his filmmaking style – even if not always to understand his motives.
Author: Dave Calhoun
Time Out London Issue 2057: 21-27 January, 2010
User reviews of this film
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- Mercia said...
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Posted on Feb 08 2010 17:55
This film has been vastly overrated by professional critics and prize-juries
It is thematically incoherent even though it implies that it is profound Is it really clear,for instance, in what way the central figure is a prophet? What is the point of the slain animals? Is the last heist,in the center of Paris,at all plausible?
The film also lacks narrative tension and it is way,way too long. - Report as inappropriate
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- grandad said...
- Posted on Feb 07 2010 19:20 A very powerful shocking film for sure. Confusing in places, perhaps because of cultural nuances and compounded by english as my first and only language
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- Rogue said...
- Posted on Feb 05 2010 13:44 An excellent film, the acting was superb, particularly Niels Arestrup, and the rise of Malik's underdog is fascinatingly portrayed. Difficult to watch at times, in particular the scene Dave refers to in his review, but at no point does the violence feel gratuitous. The only criticism I would make is that I felt it was slightly too long - it could have had the same impact in 30 minutes less runtime. Go see it at a comfortable, roomy cinema, make sure you get good seats and it's a must see.
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- Paul said...
- Posted on Feb 04 2010 14:56 Stunning - Tahar Rahim is going to be a big star.
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- ZenBen said...
- Posted on Feb 02 2010 22:40 This is a fantastic film and well deserves its plaudits if for different reasons than Dave Calhoun's . An interest in France and its colonial legacy may be helpful in getting the best out of seeing this but the equivalent is happening here.It is far better than the 2dimensional British crime flick as it alludes to the ever changing face of France and how one fits in when we all have multiple identities and in fact has some similarities to Michael Haneke's 'Hidden' . A highly intelligent ,riveting film for grown-ups !
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- Douglas said...
- Posted on Feb 02 2010 10:04 This is a first rate piece of cinema and thoroughly deserves a 5 star rating.
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- H said...
- Posted on Jan 31 2010 12:07 Poor. Doesnt match the hype. Confirmed to me most film reviewers are just bandwagon hoppers and will praise anything lauded at cannes.
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- Arcpd said...
- Posted on Jan 31 2010 00:12 An excellent, well paced, beautifully shot, and superbly acted movie. Raw and unsentimental, a gem of it's type. To follow this journey of a young man's brutilised human condition and his struggle for independence left one both exhausted and in awe of this film makers skill.
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- Andy K said...
- Posted on Jan 30 2010 22:42 Rather dull, too long and lacking surprises. Just about worth watching, but nothing more and certainly not the film of the year, even if the year is only 30 days old!
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- James Belfield said...
- Posted on Jan 28 2010 19:24 Great film apart from the lack of lady boys!
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- vangelis said...
- Posted on Jan 28 2010 15:46 Reading the critics i runned to the nearest cinema to watch the new taxi driver and one of the best movies ever. What did i saw finally. I have to admit that the actor of the leading part was very good you good really see the difference between the scared arab in the beggining and the fearless clever mafia boss at the end. One more positive thing is that 156 minutes didnt tire me at all. the director did a very consistent job but i have to admit that the second part wasn perfect if you compare it with the first.the movie had some very good taken scenes and a nice clever script. So what how many movies well directed with good script we see every year quite a fiew but that does a moviethe greatest movie dont we need sth more no exactly a deeper meening but lets say a breakthrough in the cinematography. Comparing with taxi driver means that probably you havent seen the taxidriver. Overall a nice sunday movie but thats it nothing more
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- Cleo said...
- Posted on Jan 27 2010 13:18 Mr Calhoun, what an intriguing review. I'm off to see the film.
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- marc said...
- Posted on Jan 26 2010 00:31 great film indeed, but please don't (justin hooper) compare with taxi driver - 30 years from now, im sure you'll agree
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- critique said...
- Posted on Jan 25 2010 15:52 Better than any film I`ve viewed in a long time.
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- Jerry 58 said...
- Posted on Jan 25 2010 10:32 Very disapionting,a part from the scene were he flosses with a razor blade nothing we haven,t seen before, the only thing doing hard time through most of this film was my posterior
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Cast & crew
Director: Jacques Audiard
Cast: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arastrup, Adel Bencherif full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Rated: 18
Duration: 155 mins
UK Release: Jan 22 2010
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