A Prophet - 2010

A Prophet is the latest film from director Jacques Audiard and tells the story of 19 year Malik, who after commiting an assault on a police officer is setenced to 6 years in prison. The prison in many ways, intended or not, is a microcosm for French ethnicity within society. Split between the Corsican's and the Arabs, and those in between, Malik holds a special place as he speaks both French and Arab, although neither the Corsicans or Arabs welcome him with open arms. To the Corsican's, led by mobster Cesar Luciano (Niels Arestrup) Malik is the perfect fit for a hit on a Arab who will soon testify against Corsican mobsters in court. Before long Malik is given a choice. Murder the Arab inmate or be killed himself. Almost instantly the film grips you in a vice-like hold, and for the next two and half hours refuses to let you.

The film is brutal, brilliant and utterly shocking at moments. There are a number of scenes which have you gripping the arm rests, and others which make you want to pull your eyes from the screen, but you know you never will, for fear of missing another perfectly crafted sequence.

Jacques Audiard is fast becoming one of cinema's brightest talents. His earlier films, such as The Beat That My Heart Skipped, received great critical attention, but A Prophet seems to have elevated him to a new level. The film has a assured confidence one finds only in the most accomplished directors. No scene feels less important than the last, Audiard commanding your attention, and creating a world which feels rich, fresh and original - despite falling into a genre which often creates bland, uninspiring mis-en-scene and characters ripped from the pages of cliche. The greatest accomplishment Audiard achieves is in making, what on the surface looks cliched and predictable, but is not only brilliant, but equally epic. By the films closing moments, is a fantastically simple yet carthartic moment; you feel the passage of time, the growth and character and almost as if you too have served the sentence sentence with Malik
.

A Prophet doesn't really look or feel like a typical gangster film and yet it is, the rise to power of an unsuspecting hero, a man who somehow, through luck, ingenuity and foresight, manages to find the freedom in prison he failed to find in the real world. In this way A Prophet is a damning indictment of the prison system and the potential for rehabilitation. Prison life may not be glorified or presented in a flattering light, but it does show, that with some brains, now how and the right people you can become a much more successful and dangerous criminal than you ever were before you went it.

A Prophet is held together by the two central performances, both astonishingly well rounded, notably from first timer Tahir Rahim (as Malik) and Niels Arestrup and a director in complete control off every frame. The film also works as a stunning assessment and commentary of French culture, as potent and insightful as Laurent Cantet's The Class.

Films of this quality and achievement are rare, and should be savoured. Audiard's A Prophet deserves all the plaudits it has recieved, and more. One of the most engrossing films in recent times... just don't show me a spoon anytime soon.