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Review

A Prophet – Movie Review

  • Directed by Jacques Audiard.
  • Written by Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain.
  • Starring Tahar Rahim, Adel Bercherif, Reda Kateb and Niels Arestrup.

As a Frenchman, I’ve been terribly affected to witness the French movie industry slowly bury itself into a grave of mediocrity. Over the past decade we’ve been hardly able to produce anything outside of indecently stupid comedies and boring family dramas. Year after year my opinion of French movies has degraded until, finally, I just don’t bother to watch them anymore. It’s quite sad if you think about it, we’re the country that invented cinema and now the thought of paying to go see a French movie in the theaters causes me to throw up a little in my mouth.
Thankfully, I’ve just seen a film that could make me change my mind, a movie that has more ideas, better characters and more balls than every other movie France has released this year put together.

Malik el Djebena (Tahar Rahim) is sentenced to 6 years in jail after a crime which will never be revealed. Thrown directly into the lion’s den he must learn to survive in this violent and unforgiving microcosm. The prison is in the hands of a dangerous and powerful Corsican mob boss, César Luciani (Niels Arestrup) who finds that he can use young Malik to his advantage.

Sometimes it’s harder to analyze why you like a movie and on the contrary it’s extremely simple to explain why you hate a movie. When a film is terrible you can almost make a very specific list of every aspect that annoyed you whereas the quality of a movie does not reside in a citation of individual qualities but, more often, as a whole. I think that’s the most positive and honest way I could describe A Prophet, each individual aspect comes together and works perfectly but if I did have to retain one or two features, it would probably be the characters and the ambiance.

One of the most striking aspects of the film is it’s realism. I know this may seem unimportant but so many other French movies give a hyper-realistic version of life in France and are terrified at the prospect of actually saying something meaningful that it’s refreshing to watch a film with the guts to convey a message. The dark and faded color pallet gives a oppressing and claustrophobic feel that really help bring this world to life. Everything about this movie looks and feels authentic, the language (the Corsicans speak Corsican and the Arabs speak Arab), the sets, the characters.

The characters are, in their own right, one of the biggest reason to watch this film. It’s been a long time since a French film has introduced so many interesting and compelling protagonists to the audience. Malik is remarkably interpreted by nineteen year old newcomer Tahar Rahim (definitely an actor with a tremendous future ahead of him.) and all the supporting actors give very convincing performances.

I’m having a hard time finding any flaws with this movie so I’ll just rate it.
Cool (+), best movie movie I’ve seen so far this year and hands down the best French film in at least a decade.

Trailer

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Do you have any further thoughts on the film?  have you been inside a french prison?  Or have you watched recent french cinema?  Which was worse? Feedback and let us know…

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About The Author

Romain

Representing generation 1988, Romain was born in France and bred on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Was fortunate enough to live several years in the U.S. and in Ireland where he was raised on Super Nintendo, Jurassic Park and Star Wars. Currently studying biology in France, spending most of his time skipping class and going to the cinema.

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Article Information

  • Posted: Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
  • Author: Romain
  • Filed Under: Review
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Comments

3 Responses to “A Prophet – Movie Review”
  1. Kingmob Kingmob says:

    Nice review, this is something I'll definitely keep an eye out for. The film looks bleak and brutal, which is actually what I've come to expect from French horror in the past few years. Is the French film industry truly that stagnant, generally speaking? I suppose my impressions are colored by the horror films that've been exported over to the states, but your distaste for recent French cinema sort of surprised me, my impression has always been that it's either sweetly idealized fare (Amelie or the like) or something truly edgy, downbeat and unrelenting like Irreversible or Martyrs.

    October 27, 2009 at 5:49 am
    • Romain Romain says:

      I actually really dislike Amelie, but it has more to do with what the movie stands for than the actual film.
      It was entirely financed by the city of Paris for foreign distribution in order to boost tourism.

      As for the movies that get distributed abroad, they're obviously the better ones, I know that there's a number of shit US movies that never get released over here. But I think the biggest problem plaguing the french movie industry is the total lack of risks taken by filmmakers. I think part of the problem comes from how movies are financed. The "big" studio movies are mostly financed by the big TV networks and so not only does a movie have to do well in theatres but it also has to milked to death with repeated TV broadcasts. These movies are made with the intention of appealing to everyone and avoid anything that could alienate a part of the audience. The independent movies get public funding which is great in one way because a lot of movies get made regardless of how much money they can potentially make, but at the same time many subversive movies don't get any funding at all. Classics like "La Bataille d'Alger" or "317éme Section" were obliged to seek for Italian and English funding and then were censored by the French government and refused release until very recently.

      The only studio that has made some risky moves is StudioCanal owned by Canal +, a cable television channel. Even though they have a less than perfect track record they've produced some "different " movies like "Irreversible" or "A Prophet", but they seem to be the only ones.

      October 29, 2009 at 12:19 pm
  2. alex alex says:

    Strange, I have enjoyed these recent powerful French movies at the cinema and on dvd immensely:
    Meserine
    Tell No One
    Days of Glory/Indigènes
    Read My Lips
    The Beat That My Heart Skipped
    I've Loved You So Long (French writer/director location)
    Ordeal/Calvaire
    Hidden

    December 12, 2009 at 2:43 pm

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