ElMaruecan82 That proverb applies to young Malik (Tahar Rahim) a young convict with confused eyes, a young man whose life took a rendezvous with a place called jail, and where what was left from his innocence will forever be buried in the deepest depths of human vileness.As soon as he enters the jail, Malik is like a cub who's just lose his herd, he's nowhere and everywhere in the same time, and he becomes a moving target. We've seen enough prison movies ("The Shawshank Redemption" came to my mind first) to know that it's a matter of very short time before things get rough for Malik, especially, since he doesn't have the expansive physique to impress the other inmates. He looks more like a small-time delinquents from Parisian suburbs than a gangster. Much later, this youngish look will become his one saving grace.As for the present, he's instantly bullied by a prisoner, his shoes are stolen, and later in the shower, someone proposes a deal involving drug from one side and from the other... well think Shawshank and shower, and you'll get the picture. But this isn't only a starter, the worst is yet to come. Malik's misadventures caught the eye of Cesar Luciani (Niels Arelstrup) a sort of Don Corleone-like figure Corsican style, a fitting plot device since Corsicans carry are pretty much to France what Sicily is to Italy. The old man with glorious blonde hair that give him the aura of a lion reigning over his jungle proposes another deal to Malik. And like Vito Corleone, he literally made him an offer he couldn't refuse.The reasons he couldn't refuse the offer is because he would either kill or get killed, and he couldn't seek help from any authority for Cesar WAS the authority. Malik had to kill the inmate from the shower, learn how to hide a razor in his mouth and use it in the most gruesome way. From our viewers' experience, we know the killing won't lead to any form of punishment, that the guards would close this eye. But it's all in the killing, Malik, the rookie is all shaky and nervous, and I think I felt for the first time, the same sensation than Michael Corleone in the restaurant scene. But that killing, masterfully directed by Jacques Audiard, turned my blood to ice, and proved me that European Cinema, Hollwyood's eternal disciple started to surpass its master.Indeed, maybe Scorsese lost his touch but the Scorsesian touch wasn't lost, and Jacques Audiard resuscitated the best of American stylistic depiction of the gangster world with a new fresh environment : France. The rivalry went from Italians and Blacks to Corsicans and Arabs. Watching "A Prophet" had the suspenseful thrills of "The Godfather" and the exhilaration of "Goodfellas" with a naturalness all the more European. It's an extraordinary movie with a documentary-like realism that will satisfy all the fans of the crime genre in the world, and it's one of the best French movies of the last decade.It swept off all the major César in 2010 especially Niels Arelstrup who embodied the old-school gangster charisma, a mix of intimidation and fatherly tenderness, and Tagar Rahim who played Malik like a never-ending enigma. We could never penetrate his thoughts, was he proud of earning his protection to men treating him like an 'Arab', or being seen with contempt by his fellow Arabs. As much a gangster film "A Prophet is", it's also a wonderful character study where we follow each step of Malik's evolution without feeling the rush. He grows hair, learns to read, learns Italian, learns to observe, to talk, to tell the truth, to bluff, and to finally ooze enough respect so he can, when his turn comes, dismiss his own mentor.And at the end, when he walks away from the jail, with charismatic confidence, followed by his men driving expensive cars, as he finally become a prophet in his own 'country', yes I could buy it, with the same excitement when I first saw Michael Corleone's bad-ass strut after he killed his brother-in-law. "A Prophet" is of that caliber, a must-see gangster movie, one the French can be proud of.

Red_Identity I mean, I guess this is a better film than I'm giving it credit for. Also, it's not American, so I can't fault it for following every other film of its ilk here. Still, the plot and characters never really rise above being sort of archetypes, and the lead character, although decently played by Tahar Rahim, just isn't very interesting. His arc isn't terribly unrealistic, but it also doesn't go places we haven't seen before, and taken as it is, not terribly effective. However, there are some good things in the film, and despite the weak script, the directing really does do its best to make this rise up. Yeah. not very recommended on my part.

diana-y-paul This French film, winner of the 2009 Grand Prix at Cannes and France's official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, is a prison drama in the same league as "Shawshank Redemption" and secondarily "Goodfellas": raw, intense, and violent. It works largely because Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), a 19-year-old French youth of Algerian origins, finds himself in horrific circumstances far exceeding the crime of resisting arrest for which he was found guilty and sentenced to a harsh six-year prison sentence. Having to face situations in which both choices will destroy his soul but save his life, he watches and listens, learning to read from a fellow Muslim prisoner, and eventually becoming all he thought he would never be. Go to www.unhealedwound.com (June 23, 2014 post) for a more detailed review.

Chris Silver A Prophete (Un Prophète), France's official 2010 Academy Awards. Directed by Jacques Audiard. And staring Tahar Rahim as a kid, petty criminal who goes to jail for one reason or another. At first he is trying to take it easy and just make it through his six years smooth (and not be raped). But soon, he is "forced" into organized mafia crime in the prison system. He works his way up in the ranks. This movie was great because it felt like a foreign revelation of "Foreign Shawshank Redemption" and how it is really less of a "innocent serene life" in prison and more of a "Do anything to get by" attitude. Our antihero protagonist, Malik, earns his movie title name "Prophet" in this weird sequence of events. That was the only confusing part of the movie. Besides that, the movie was a fantastic ride through the hierarchy of and French-Arab through the prison system. Audiard wrote this screenplay with 3 other people I believe. The film was great although it follows the "Play-it-Safe" Criteria of camera angles, steady-cam movements, and 1st person narrative film perception. I loved the story, the way the characters progress and the film ends, how the characters increase in tension and digress in trust. The watch-ability is high. around 8.75/10. The SilverRating is: 7/10.