Oscar nominated and 97per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. A masterpiece
During the press junket for Black Panther, Ryan Coogler was asked a fairly standard question about which films inspired him before he started filming on the latest MCU blockbuster.
In an interview with Fandango, he said:  My favourite film is a film called A Prophet, a French film that was released almost a decade ago now, which seems a bit crazy. Any time I’m making a movie, I’m always leaning on inspiration from that one. A Prophet deals with secret societies and cultural ties, so that was a big influence on Black Panther.”
On first look, we’d excuse you for not linking the technological paradise of Wakanda with the events that transpire in a dour French prison, but nearly nine years after its release, Jacques Audiard’s film is rightfully hailed as an influential modern masterpiece.
Here’s why.
Clip via –Â Sony Pictures Releasing Australia
Unlike other prison-set films and gangster dramas, A Prophet shuns the standard-issue tough-guy approach to a main character by telling the story of a character that focuses on brains over brawn.
Ok, what’s the film about?
Condemned to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena, part Arab, part Corsican, cannot read or write. Arriving at the jail entirely alone, he appears younger, weaker and far more fragile than the other convicts. In fact, the teenager instantly loses his shoes after an encounter with a gang. Cornered by the leader of the Corsican gang currently ruling the prison, Malik is given a number of “missions” to carry out, toughening him up and gaining the gang leader’s confidence in the process. It turns out that Malik is a fast learner and rises up the prison ranks, all the while secretly devising his own plans.
In French, a “prophète” can be translated as somebody who foresees the future, as well as someone who invests it with religious significance. This is key to the whole film. Tahar Rahim’s superb performance deserves recognition because he expertly portrays Malik’s fear and guilt, but on the other side, we never know how far he’s willing to go up the criminal ladder. At what point does ambition usurp morality?
Throughout the film, Malik’s neither glorified nor demonised. He’s an enigma that’s everything to everybody and yet, he still manages to be his own man.
Granted, we’re treated to the cliched images of tattooed convicts lifting weights, getting into fights and protecting their terrain, but Malik is clever enough to realise that in order to survive prison, you need to see two steps ahead and know what’s lurking around the corner.
Earning trust, keeping connections and being resourceful can be far more valuable in prison than anything else. On the outside, Malik was shy, nervous and passive. After being sent to prison, he learns how to observe, how to read people, how to plot and ultimately, how to rise.
This being said, the film doesn’t shy away from depicting violence but unlike other films in the genre, A Prophet uses violence as a defining characteristic for its main protagonist.
After brutally killing someone with a razor blade, Malik is haunted by images of this man and in those moments, he constantly has to justify and question his own morality. The gore and violence is never sensationalised though and Malik remains the antithesis to the usual image of machismo and bravado that exists in these films.
A Prophet is dripping with themes of spirituality, immortality, ambition and symbolism – one scene with a deer is poetic – but aside from this, it’s a bloody good drama that won the Cannes Film Festival’s Prize Un Certain Regard Award.
On this week’s episode of The Big Reviewski, the JOE panel discussed their favourite foreign-language films (4 min mark) and in my own view, now is the perfect time to reflect on the brilliance of A Prophet.
As Rolling Stone said in their review “A Prophet is a new crime classic” while USA Today called it “a compelling piece of naturalistic filmmaking, claustrophobic and thought-provoking.”
There have been plans to remake the film in the English language – Michael B. Jordan and Josh Brolin were linked to Sam Raimi’s remake – but if you haven’t seen the original yet, we strongly urge you to do so here.
