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A Prophet (DVD)
Year: 2009
Rating: MA
Director: Jacques Audiard
Cast: Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Tahar Rahim
Release Date: August 18, 2010
Distributor: Sony
The Film: 4.5
The Disc: 4.5
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5This sprawling ultra-realistic prison drama is a near-masterpiece and further complemented by a clutch of impressive special features.
Malik (Tahar Rahim) is a young chancer from a French Arabic background who gets involved in crime, but his initial attempts land him in prison where, true to legend, his real education begins. He fights to keep the predators at bay, but pretty soon Malik reluctantly accepts the patronage of the Corsican head of the jail, Cesar (a wonderfully gritty performance from Niels Arestrup). The Corsicans are the most hardened and desperate group, and they run on fierce, enforced loyalty as well as blood ties. Against this effective mafia, the growing population of Arab criminals has to give way. Malik does the maths, adopts a prison style Islam, and captures the even bigger Arabic population and therefore triumphs.
It's a conventional enough story, but Audiard invests it with a kind of metaphysical dimension. A Prophet is a massive, sprawling ultra-realistic prison drama which, over a magisterial two-and-a-half hours, confines us into the most claustrophobic conditions. This near masterpiece will be talked about for many years to come. There's also an impressive array of DVD special features, with deleted scenes, screen tests, rehearsal footage, and an audio commentary with director Jacques Audiard, actor Tahar Rahim and co-writer Thomas Bidegain.