[critical] A Prophet

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena can neither read nor write. Upon his arrival in Central, alone in the world, he seems younger and more fragile than other inmates. He was 19 years old.

From the outset, it falls under the umbrella of a group of prisoners corsican who metes out his law in the prison. The young man learns quickly. The wire ” missions “, it is hardened and wins the confidence of the Corsican.

But, very quickly, Malik uses all his intelligence to develop discreetly its own network…

Author’s Note

[rating:9/10]

Release Date : August 26, 2009

Directed by Jacques Audiard

Film French

With Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif

Duration : 2h 35mn

Trailer :

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Nearly four years, waiting for his new achievement with an impatience with juvenile silly but fully assumed. Four years ! Long, much too long for fans of Jacques Audiard.

The year 2009 is to mark the red-hot iron, as it will now be synonymous with his return. And I want to say what return ! In competition at the Cannes film Festival, it received the Grand jury Prize and went on a bit of a mosquito of the Palme D’or with the Prophet : a film of overflowing wealth, disturbing and magnetizing, generous and individualistic, unhealthy and life-saving, a film by Audiard simply.

The story takes us in the footsteps of Malik El Djebena, a young arab illiterate 19-year-old, sentenced to six years imprisonment because of an attempted assault weapon on a police officer (we can already imagine that the boy is not the type to be very smart). Upon his arrival, it is the most puny, the most low and almost the youngest of all. Fresh meat in a den of foxes and of wolves hungry for blood. His fate will switch the day where Caesar (the ” guy ” corsican prison) asks, or rather orders him to kill one of his own under the penalty of being killed in turn. In exchange it will receive valuable protection.

Therefore, we are witnessing the ascension unexpectedly this young arab in an environment that he does not know and who certainly doesn’t want him : the mafia corsica. The camera Audiard follows in the footsteps of the first steps of this commuter of the bottom floor that will become one of the biggest bullies of the prison to force of malice and intelligence learned on the job. Under the guise of this character, a young actor : Tahar Rahim. We find an actor that was unknown overflowing with talent, bringing his innocent and naive youth in a world that is cold and impervious to emotion. Tahar Rahim arrives sublimely to juggle between the different emotions that the win over the years, bringing several reading levels to his character that is neither all white nor all black but that just goes where the wind takes him. The psychology being disturbed, the character is perfectly transcribed and gives rise to many sequences in both human and abominable that inspire the dismayed of a spectator clamped to his chair in front of a such realism.

Because the first word that comes to mind when speaking of a film of Audiard’s ” realism “. A realism to the death that confronts us with the sad reality of the inevitability of human. A Prophet is not an exception to this rule. Jacques Audiard portrays brilliantly the prison world of the French jails, not glorifying in any case, but refutation not fully. It is almost a story, which we have witnessed during the 2 hours 30 of the film : Jacques Audiard’s appeals to the government and a message to be pessimistic to the population by stating loud and clear that the passage through the box prison is not anything beneficial, quite the contrary. Or rather if, this passage is beneficial to the one who enters it, but the side of evil exclusively. As to the image of the young Malik, a good number of inmates will have learned only one thing during this passage more or less long : we will become even more dangerous and unhealthy than they were before. No redemption honeyed and mea culpa prophetic, not just the sad and absolute reality.

Biased or not, exaggerated or not, it remains that the film is chilling, unsettling, we are pulling and straining the slightest bit of emotion. As always, Audiard is the Man in the foreground in relation to the more bestial, more savage, more primary in its actions by means of a staging is meticulous, rigorous, of a camera closer to the protagonists and an enchanting universe that is reminiscent of Midnight Express, Alan Parker, or The Hole, by Jacques Becker.

If A Prophet has not received the Palme D’or, it does not remain about it less one of the works of the most accomplished and disturbing of this year 2009.

At the level of interpretations, we are also seeing exploits. Past the brilliant Tahar Rahim, A Prophet boasts a fine roster of actors to the ” mouth “, start by Niels Arestrup. Is both simple and scary, a corsican gangster insensitive and intransigent, which would fall almost to a gentile. It is without voice in most of the sequences where it occurs. It arrives perfectly to juggle the enemy, the friend, the guardian angel and the grim reaper. His character is a ticking time bomb that can explode at every moment, destroying the future of the first comer. Niels Arestrup gives a new meaning to the word brilliant.

Add to this duo, the supporting roles that have not been set aside or taken lightly as it can be seen in many productions. Here, each one with its own personality, its own psychology that is twisted and does not look like that in a single statement : they are more screwed up than the others. Thus, we are witnessing the emergence of new talent such as Reda Kateb aka Jordi The Gypsy, or Adel Bencherif (Ryad). Because Audiard is above all a director who trusts and that gives a chance to new “recruits” of the French cinema, is based not on the ultimate heads of posters that décrédibiliseraient his films and thus opening its doors to a cinema more independent, more assumed, more authentic, a film that has nothing to do with ” soups “, shows fast-food, which is invaded each month.

In conclusion, in only five films, Jacques Audiard has emerged as a key figure of French cinema, but with A Prophet, he established himself as a sacred monster of the cinema in the genre, leaving us speechless in front of such an assembly of control rules, and the ability to break them, which gives it a very strong taste of a masterpiece.

If A Prophet has not received the Palme D’or, it does not remain about it less one of the works of the most accomplished and disturbing of this year 2009.

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