UN PROPHETE (France 2009) ***** Top 10
Directed by Jacques Audiard

UN PROPHETE (A PROPHET) is a powerful and moving portrait of Malik (Tahar Rahim), a nobody serving 6-year imprisonment for the beating up of a cop. 

Though the story is basically grim (Malik is beaten up countless times and humiliated throughout most of the film), director Audiard lifts his film to new heights.  As this pariah rises to power, Malik realizes his potential and executes the most deviant acts to satisfy his basic needs of food, sex and ultimately power.  Desperation leads to survival which leads to power.  Malik is forced to do a killing making him desperate enough to learn the art of survival in an unfriendly world.

Audiard is an excellent story-teller and filmmaker.  His use of darkness and light (Malik peering out the window of the dark van as he last looks at freedom), close-ups (looks of discontent), violence and shock tactics rile up reactions and emotions of his audience.  In fact, the film contains many scenes that are unbearable to watch – the most noted being the one in which Malik hides a razor between the teeth in his bleeding mouth.  He carefully builds up Malik’s character, inciting pity leading to respect. 

Audiard’s use of music should be mentioned.  Faster paced music is used to forward the events in the story as well as the passage of time while slow music emphasizes the lengthy forty days and forty Malik spends in the hole.

UN PROPHETE runs a full 155 minutes, with the second half requiring full concentration to figure out all betrayals going on within the various gangs.
The film’s best line has the advice given to Malik: “The idea is to learn (in prison) here so you leave a little smarter.” Malik more than succeeds.  But in one brilliant choreographed segment, Malik after passing though airport security for the first time, unwittingly sticks out his tongue – a habitual procedure required when going through security after arrest.

But Audiard is brilliant enough to work the emotions of his audience, often creating a feel-good movie at various points of Malik’s journey to release.  The audience feels Malik’s elation of being the best at what he is good at.  But the film’s best performance belongs to Neils Arestrup as Cesar Luciano, the psychopathic Corsican kingpin who lives a Godfather-like existence in the cells.  If ever a human being can be best described as dangerous, it would be Cesar.  Audiard’s last film which also co-starred Neils Arestrup DE BATTRE MON COUER S’EST ARRETE won the Cesar for Best Film and the BAFTA award for best foreign film.

That film never got a release in Canada except for one showing, courtesy of Cinefranco.  Perhaps UN PROPHETE, the best French film released this year and the winner of the Jury Prize this year at Cannes will put this brilliant director on the map in North America.