Summary:
A directionless young Franco-Arab man is sent to a French prison where he is taken under the wing of a Corsican Mafioso.
My Thoughts:
There are movies that you can tell will be masterpieces from the first few frames (The Doors’ ‘The End’ playing over the napalming of Vietnam at the start of “Apocalypse Now”, or, for me, the montage at the beginning of Bergman’s“Persona”), and then there are movies that are masterpieces that unfold slowly, revealing themselves to be more than they original laid bare on the surface. A Prophet is a slow burn masterpiece. It starts off similar to other prison movies, only a bit more personal and focused, but at about the halfway point, things begin to change. In 99% of the prison movies I’ve seen, prison has been an oppressive force that breaks down on the occupants inside (The Green Mile, “Brawl in Cell Block 99”); but this film shows a man who is already broken growing stronger in the face of that opposition. Prison becomes the splint for his broken bones; it gives him structure and meaning, and not in the way one might expect.
Just a note that there will be some spoilers peppered throughout this review. I went in blind and absolutely loved this movie. If that’s good enough for you, skip the review and watch the movie (how many writers tell you not to read their work?); if you want a bit more information, or just wanted to hear my thoughts, then by all means, please continue, but you’ve been warned.
“The idea is to leave here a little smarter.”
Malick El Djebena (Tahar Rahim, “The Past”) is a young Franco-Arab man who has been in and out of juvenile detention his entire life. After being arrested again and sentenced to his first adult sentence (six years), Malick arrives at a prison whose populace seems to be divided between Corsicans and Arabs. After a few beatings, a Corsican leader named Cesar (Niels Arestrup, “At Eternity’s Gate”) approaches Malick with an offer: kill an Arab and gain protection from his crew; but that’s just the beginning.
As I mentioned above, this film really surprised me in the turns that it takes. This is not a normal prison movie: it’s not just about prison politics and brutal brawls, it’s about gaining respect and notoriety; it’s about making something out of the nobody you were.
When this film starts, Malick is less than nobody. He’s a poor kid whose been living on the streets. He doesn’t know who his parents were, how he got to Paris, how long he’s been living on the streets, or even if he spoke French or Arabic first; he doesn’t know how to read, and he has no friends or family on the outside that will help him with his commissary. He’s utterly detached from the world, though, every once in a while he finds himself gifted with strange dreams- fleeting visions of what is to come. The way that these sequences play out are wonderful because they never feel like we’re witnessing an actual prophecy; instead it feels as if the universe is urging him towards his own destiny, which he himself must fulfill. After joining up with Cesar (whose face we glimpse briefly in flashes of a dream before Malick meets him), Malick’s life begins to form a kind of structure.
At first, Malick’s life is a lot more difficult, because he is determined to hold on to the person he was before he came to prison: the weak-willed, spineless man without direction. But there comes a point where Cesar tells him that Malick must either kill an Arab man named Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi, “Munich”) or the Corsicans will kill Malick. Spoilers: When Malick completes the task, it’s as much Malick killing Reyeb as it is Malick killing his former self. When Malick emerges from the killing, getting away scot-free, he finds himself on the outskirts of the Corsican’s mafia, but he slowly works his way in, and slowly begins to learn new things.
Here is where the film really started to surprise me, because Malick himself started to surprise me. I will try not to go into to many details, but Malick eventually finds himself furloughed due to good behavior, and during his furlough days, he runs illegal errands for Cesar, as well as starting to make contacts with people who might help him further on in life. Malick begins to not just understand the world that he’s been dragged into, but thrive in it. There is a scene when Malik is forced to take out another hit, and the moment after he does, the scene seems to freeze and find peace: we get a sense that Malik has attained a kind of nirvana, he’s found who he’s supposed to be in this world, and he loves it with every aspect of his being. I got chills during this scene; it felt as if the subtle little flashes, the dreams that we witness, the hints that destiny was pulling Malik forward into this life, had paid off in one of the most satisfying ways imaginable.
You know the scene in “The Godfather”, when Michael Corleone goes to the christening ceremony and promises to renounce Satan while at the same time we witness the murders that Michael arranged? There is a kind of finality in that scene that shows us that Michael, though he had fought against becoming part of the family business for so long, has finally accepted his place in the world of crime. In this film, there’s that same feeling, that inevitable draw that pulled Michael in as it does Malik, and as we watch both characters rebuild themselves anew, we cant help but root for our characters. In both “The Godfather” and “A Prophet”, our protagonists have changed so much by the end that they’re unrecognizable; they stand taller, stronger, triumphant men. While this might be a story about diving headlong into the underbelly of the crime world, it’s also a story of redemption, of how crime rescued Malik from a life of insignificance and banality, and gave him hope for a future, friends, and a family.
Verdict:
Jacques Audiard has directed a number of other films I also want to check out, but his most recent film, “The Sisters Brothers”, also comes recommended from me. It’s not as good as this, by any means, and I know fellow TMM reviewer Michael wasn’t overly keen on it, but I certainly enjoyed it and think its worth a watch, particularly if you like westerns. “Rust and Bone” was pretty good too, but it’s been a few years since I saw that and it didn’t make the impression on me that this film did.
Writing about this movie makes me just want to watch it again. This could very well be “The Godfather” of prison-crime movies. It’s an increasingly intense watch with outstanding performances and plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing for a while and then cheering towards the end. This film is a triumph. I cannot recommend it enough.
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