A Prophet is the latest film from French director Jacques Audiard who is best known for his 2005 film The Beat That My Heart Skipped which left me remarkably dissapointed when I saw it. Audiard returns to the 'gangster' or 'crime' genre with his latest film which centres itself around the character of the arabic Malik El Djebena's admittance into prison and his gradual and dangerous rise up in the ranks of the criminal underworld whilst incarcerated. This narrative arc may sound painfully familiar but Audiard manages to take this really quite dull 'rags to riches' premise and invogorate it with superb performances, some haunting metaphysical dream sequences, nail biting tension, brutal realism and some very well developed, interesting characters.
Tahar Rahim plays the part of Malik with stunning authority. The subtle transformation of his character from a fairly nervous underdog to a well respected individual is conveyed wonderfully through his very understated and realistic performance. His performance hugely outshines Pacino's in The Godfather which personally I think is hugely over rated. Comparison's to The Godfather are regrettably inevitable but it serves to display that A Prophet is simply a much more intelligently constructed piece of work. Most notably the scene of the protagonist's 'first crime' in A Prophet stands out as surpassing the iconic restaurant murder scene in The Godfather in almost every level. The build up to Malik's murder with him agonisingly practising his method for hiding the razor blade in his mouth builds the tension wonderfully and the lack of soundtrack mixed with the bloody confrontation makes for a much more tense scene due to the increased realism.
Malik manages to get protection from the Corsican gang in the prison which sparks a fairly complex political and racial sub-text which runs through the film about his loyalty and disloyalty towards the muslims and towards the depleting numbers of the Corsicans present in the prison. Malik is guided by the ghost of the man that he murdered in the prison who feeds him information that assists him in staying alive in the tough political backdrop to his surroundings. The scenes where the ghost appears are constructed with such a strong pseudo-realist style that they seem all the more surreal and haunting. For example there are moments where Malik is seen to simply be sitting in his room with the man he killed simply sitting next to him or standing in the corner. The boldness of these images creates some very engaging and memorable moments within the film.
The scene that stands out for me most in the film is a dream sequence which displays a series of distorted images of a stag running along a road at night. This is edited together so, so well that I was frankly in awe of the professionalism of film making that I was seeing. Very rarely will I find myself slack jawed with the raw beauty of a sequence of film-this is definitely one of them.
A Prophet received the award for best film at the London film festival as well as winning the Grand Jury prize at Cannes. Tahar Rahim has picked up many best actor awards and nominations already as well. It deserves every single piece of acclaim that it receives, this is truly an unforgettable film. I would easily put this up as the best crime/gangster film that I have seen next to Jonathan Glazer's incredible Sexy Beast. Both are at once conformative to the basic frameworks of the genre but act subversively to the dominant film making form making for not only an entertaining watch but also for an intellectually engaging viewing experience.
Tahar Rahim plays the part of Malik with stunning authority. The subtle transformation of his character from a fairly nervous underdog to a well respected individual is conveyed wonderfully through his very understated and realistic performance. His performance hugely outshines Pacino's in The Godfather which personally I think is hugely over rated. Comparison's to The Godfather are regrettably inevitable but it serves to display that A Prophet is simply a much more intelligently constructed piece of work. Most notably the scene of the protagonist's 'first crime' in A Prophet stands out as surpassing the iconic restaurant murder scene in The Godfather in almost every level. The build up to Malik's murder with him agonisingly practising his method for hiding the razor blade in his mouth builds the tension wonderfully and the lack of soundtrack mixed with the bloody confrontation makes for a much more tense scene due to the increased realism.
Malik manages to get protection from the Corsican gang in the prison which sparks a fairly complex political and racial sub-text which runs through the film about his loyalty and disloyalty towards the muslims and towards the depleting numbers of the Corsicans present in the prison. Malik is guided by the ghost of the man that he murdered in the prison who feeds him information that assists him in staying alive in the tough political backdrop to his surroundings. The scenes where the ghost appears are constructed with such a strong pseudo-realist style that they seem all the more surreal and haunting. For example there are moments where Malik is seen to simply be sitting in his room with the man he killed simply sitting next to him or standing in the corner. The boldness of these images creates some very engaging and memorable moments within the film.
The scene that stands out for me most in the film is a dream sequence which displays a series of distorted images of a stag running along a road at night. This is edited together so, so well that I was frankly in awe of the professionalism of film making that I was seeing. Very rarely will I find myself slack jawed with the raw beauty of a sequence of film-this is definitely one of them.
A Prophet received the award for best film at the London film festival as well as winning the Grand Jury prize at Cannes. Tahar Rahim has picked up many best actor awards and nominations already as well. It deserves every single piece of acclaim that it receives, this is truly an unforgettable film. I would easily put this up as the best crime/gangster film that I have seen next to Jonathan Glazer's incredible Sexy Beast. Both are at once conformative to the basic frameworks of the genre but act subversively to the dominant film making form making for not only an entertaining watch but also for an intellectually engaging viewing experience.
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