Currently in limited release in the United States as A Prophet, French director Jacques Audiard’s latest details the rise of a young Arab criminal named Malik (played by film newcomer Tahar Rahim) from clueless 19-year-old inmate to gang-king of a maximum-security prison. A lot of people have been comparing the film to classic American crime films like The Godfather and Goodfellas. It’s not a hard leap to make, as the film presents Malik’s rise to the top in a very crime glorifying, typically Hollywood fashion. Here the tough choices Malik makes, the lucky breaks he experiences, they all have horrifying and violent consequences, but we can’t help but cheer him along as he murders and deals.
The similarities to modern American crime classics don’t just come from the film’s cavalier, entrepreneurial, American attitude, but also from the care with which it was made and the quality of it’s performances. While the criminal behavior may be glorified, it is never used in an exploitive or cartoonish manner. The murders here are close quarters, sloppy, brutal in their realism, and very non-poetic with their lack of choreography. Any sort of action is presented in service to the story and not just to eek a cheap thrill from the audience. Un Prophète isn’t at all escapist. The characters react to their actions in very real ways, and are visibly changed by their experiences.
The story begins with Malik’s first day of a six-year prison sentence. It’s not soon after getting his bearings in his new surroundings that he runs afoul with the man who controls the prison’s gangs, Cesar Luciani. Luciani, a Corsican, needs to have an Arab prisoner murdered, so he recruits Malik to get close to him and get the job done. We’re not given any of Malik’s past. We don’t know what he’s done or what he’s capable of. But, it seems from the start that murder is over his head. Reluctant, he tries to get out of the detail, but he soon finds out that in his new home it’s kill or be killed. Thus begins his career as an Arab prisoner acting as a stooge for the Corsican mafia. In prison, where things are very clearly divided along racial lines, this is an unusual situation. Due to his association with the Corsicans the other Arabs call him a pig. Due to his race the Corsicans call him an Arab dog. Malik is a man caught in between worlds, but as the story progresses he uses his all-access-pass among the races to play the gangs against each other for his own gain.
Rahim’s performance as Malik and Niels Arestrup’s as Luciani serve as the real heart of the film. The two characters go from an employer/employee relationship, to a bit of a mentor/protégé dynamic, and finally end up in a game of cat and mouse. Through each stage of their character’s developments both Rahim and Arestrup remain enthralling to watch work. That this is Rahim’s first real film role is absolutely astonishing. When the film begins he is feral, a wounded animal; and by the end of the picture he has developed into a grown man and a leader. In Rahim’s hands the transition couldn’t have come easier and you’ll be with him every step of the way. Arestrup plays Luciani as being very proud and dangerous. Every moment he is on screen he exudes power and experience, and every time Malik is at odds with his orders a sense of dread overtakes the proceedings largely to the potency of Arestrup’s aura. By the end of the film Luciani’s base of power has begun to crumble and it’s fascinating to watch Arestrup as his character deals with the turmoil. His anger and ego jump off the screen, and while his character never gets so two dimensional that you see him as a proper villain, he makes for a great antagonist to pit Malik against.
The structure of the film is standard, well worn. We’ve all seen this story before, but it’s a testament to the talent of the people involved that it never feels old hat. Quite to the contrary, Audiard is able to use our familiarity with the beats of the story to manipulate our emotions and take narrative short cuts without ever making it feel like we’re being short changed. Malik is never presented in a sympathetic light. He is a pretty straightforward criminal. His actions are violent and selfish. He breaks laws and commandments alike. And yet, we are able to sympathize with him and put our selves in his shoes none-the-less. In a lesser film we might find the character too reprehensible and unrelatable to make an effective protagonist, but here, when he is presented in the framework of a properly executed heroic tale, we can’t help but find in him a sense of familiarity that leads to us rooting for his success.
Un Prophète clocks in at around two and a half hours, and though I’ve often complained about the run-time excesses of many modern films, it never became a problem with me here. I found the stories of the characters epic enough and the setting of the film unique enough that the length of the film felt justified. Prison life in Un Prophète is completely different from the day to day lives that we’re familiar with. Malik has to deal with new rules, new power structures, and create new strategies for personal advancement. Prison life resembles middle school more than it does the adult world. Bribery and intimidation are able to supersede rules and decency. Rational goes out the window and survival becomes a matter of the law of the jungle. As an audience, we are thrown into this new set of circumstances just as suddenly as Malik. His journey and education are engaging experiences as we debate with ourselves and decide how we would handle the situations were we placed in them instead. Un Prophète has a learning curve; it throws enough at us that it feels like two and a half hours well spent rather than an ass-numbing marathon of film watching.
Education and advancement is one of the themes at the film’s center. Malik is told early on that the goal of prison should be to leave the place smarter, and he takes this advice to heart. He teaches himself to read, watches the behavior of the guys in charge and mimics it. He learns how things work and uses this knowledge to his advantage. Like most prison films, Un Prophète is a story of survival, and here it seems that adaptation to your circumstances no matter how unfamiliar or uncomfortable they are is the key to not only surviving but thriving. I can’t help but apply the lessons of the film to Rahim and Audiard’s careers. Audiard has had made some successful crime films before, but with the release of Un Prophète he becomes a force in the film world and someone to watch. If Rahim came into this film an inexperienced young actor I imagine he has now left this once in a lifetime learning experience with a mastery of his craft and control of his own destiny. While I was excited leaving the theater to have seen a film as good as Un Prophète, I can’t help but be even more excited at what the future must hold for these two phenomenal talents.
