French Cinema: Un prophète (A Prophet) film review

Un Prophète directed by Jacques Audiard is an award-winning French crime drama. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes, several César Awards, a Best Foreign Language Film BAFTA, Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards. Quite the collection of accolades and there is most definietly a reason for that.

Tahar Rahim is exceptional as Malik El Djebena, an incarcerated small-time criminal who ascends up the prison hierarchy. Rahim commands the screen completely even though this was one of his first film roles, and we, the audience, follow his startling metamorphosis step by step.

One of the most visceral scenes comes early in the film, where Malik is tasked with the assassination of Reyeb, a fellow Muslim prison mate, by the all-powerful Corsican mob boss César Luciani (Niels Arestrup). It is a startling scene that is hard to watch but brilliantly depicts Malik’s desperation to survive. As a result of his violent and botched murder, he is thus haunted by the spectre of Reyeb throughout the rest of the film.

Impressively, Un prophète is not exactly an original tale, but its execution and exploration of race make it a compelling entry into the prison drama genre. Due to Malik El Djebena’s French-Algerian heritage, he is able to navigate the diverse cultures of the prison; he straddles the gap between the Corsican mobsters and the Muslims and cultivates his position within both groups to further his position in the prison’s hierarchy.

He also finds time to learn how to read and write through the prison school, arming himself for life outside when his six-year sentence is finally over. His journey is a complex and compelling one, and you feel yourself rooting for him throughout.

A familiar story made brilliant through execution and a star performance by Tahar Rahim, who is easily one of France’s most compelling actors working at the moment.