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Un Prophete, being the acclaimed French crime film directed by Jaques Audiard . I wanted to see this cos it's had such good reviews in the UK.
The film follows the whole prison sentence of Malik El Dejebena in a French jail. Entering as a 19 year old illiterate orphan whose life has obviously up to then consisted of petty crime and fighting to survive. The jail is controlled on the inside by the Corsican mobsters. The many Muslim prisoners keep themselves to themselves in another prison block. Malik not being religious hangs out on his own till he's given the protection of Luciani the Corsican boss in exchange for committing a horrendous murder.
Malik then is all eyes and ears and uses his wits to progress himself beyond those who are using him. Smart kid, he extricates himself from some tricky situations while aligning himself with various sides. When he's allowed out on some day passes he realises his own time has come.
An absorbing film. It's long but I never lost the plot being used to the goings on in The Sopranos! Tahar Ramin is excellent as Malik considering his lack of acting experience. Audiard was right to take a gamble on him having the intelligence to play the role from innocent abroad to quick witted, hard boiled gangster.
Le Prophete deserves all the praise its been getting and is well worth seeing if you like a well plotted, intricately charactered film.
4.25/5
The film follows the whole prison sentence of Malik El Dejebena in a French jail. Entering as a 19 year old illiterate orphan whose life has obviously up to then consisted of petty crime and fighting to survive. The jail is controlled on the inside by the Corsican mobsters. The many Muslim prisoners keep themselves to themselves in another prison block. Malik not being religious hangs out on his own till he's given the protection of Luciani the Corsican boss in exchange for committing a horrendous murder.
Malik then is all eyes and ears and uses his wits to progress himself beyond those who are using him. Smart kid, he extricates himself from some tricky situations while aligning himself with various sides. When he's allowed out on some day passes he realises his own time has come.
An absorbing film. It's long but I never lost the plot being used to the goings on in The Sopranos! Tahar Ramin is excellent as Malik considering his lack of acting experience. Audiard was right to take a gamble on him having the intelligence to play the role from innocent abroad to quick witted, hard boiled gangster.
Le Prophete deserves all the praise its been getting and is well worth seeing if you like a well plotted, intricately charactered film.
4.25/5