The French drama Un prophete, or A Prophet, is now arriving in the United States after already taking the rest of the world by storm.  An Oscar nominee for best foreign language film, A Prophet has already earned that prize at the British Academy Awards, following its Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.  The American trailer for the film opens with a quote from the London Times calling it “as epic as The Godfather. A must see.”  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The film follows the six year prison term of a young Arab man named Malik El Djebena, opening with his first day in prison and ending on the day of his release. Upon entering prison, Malik had no friends or enemies on either side of the prison walls.  That will change.

Despite trying to keep to himself, Malik quickly finds himself in the middle of a feud between the Corsican mob and the Arab gang that represent the two halves of the inmate power system.  His first act is a kill-or-be-killed situation which earns him some protection by the Corsicans, if not yet any status.  However, as he gains the trust of mob leader Luciani, Malik is granted more and more responsibility.  He also gets involved with the prison’s drug dealer, leading to some connections on the outside.

Throughout all this Malik is educating himself using the prison school, while seemingly receiving some spiritual guidance from the ghost of his first victim.  The resulting rise-to-power scenario is every bit on par with that of Michael Corleone, a comparison that is echoed in the film’s brilliant final shot.

This is a thoroughly engrossing film that will keep your attention and interest from start to finish.  In addition to the obvious The Godfather comparisons, the film also echoes The Shawshank Redemption, and any time you can compare a movie to those two classics, you know it is something special.

First and foremost, the work of Tahar Rahim has to be recognized.  The actor who makes his feature film debut as Malik got the job almost by accident.  He just happened to share a cab with director Jacques Audiard and the rest is history.  His performance is unforgettable and worthy of comparison to Al Pacino’s work as Michael Corleone.  Playing the entire range from meek new prison inmate to cocksure mob leader, Rahim sucks you into the performance and doesn’t let you go.

Although the film may lack the Hollywood polish of films like The Godfather and Shawshank, the visuals are nevertheless just as impressive.  The cinematography is gritty and stylized, while not feeling overdone.  It is especially impressive during scenes of violence.  Cinematographer Stephane Fontaine really seems to get into the action, especially in one climactic action scene that all takes place in the front seat of an SUV.  He also uses an iris technique for many of the films point-of-view shots, which gets us even deeper inside Malik’s head.

Working with co-screenwriter Thomas Bidegain, director Jacques Audiard keeps the movie focused and moving forward.  There is no lull in this film and not a single scene or shot that feels wasted.  Although the movie is at its most basic a classic rise-to-power story, there is nothing typical about it and there are deeper levels to the story that I look forward to exploring on repeated viewings; most notably, the otherworldly presence of the murdered Reyeb and Malik’s prophetic vision of wildlife.

There is nothing I don’t like about this movie. Even the seemingly odd choice to conclude the movie with “Mack the Knife” still somehow felt right.  I do hope it is able to find an audience here in the States.  It certainly deserves one.

A Prophet is rated R for “strong violence, sexual content, nudity, language and drug material.”  Although not as pronounced as it could have been, there are some graphic scenes of violence and enough dirty language to scare those who frown on it away.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of A Prophet.