A Prophet
Criminal excellence
Review
Crime can be a very difficult genre to work with. It is all too easy to overdo the suspense and general blood-spatter factor, and to dismiss characterisation and humour because they're difficult to include amidst the gunshots. Nevertheless there are examples of near perfection in the crime-film industry. The Godfather regularly tops 'Best Films, Like, Ever' lists; Pulp Fiction ought to be in everyone's film collection; you will not find a more heart-warming or brutal film than Leon. With his new film, A Prophet, Jacques Audiard demonstrates with finesse how to combine tension and violence with charm and wit.
The film follows nineteen-year-old Malik (Tahar Rahim) as he embarks on a six-year prison sentence. He falls in with a Corsican gang almost immediately who provide him with protection, determination, and an all-too-vivid guilty conscience. As Malik becomes more educated in matters of language, friendship and alliance, his livelihood is threatened in proportion to his growing self-confidence. 
On paper, it is difficult to care for this character who appears to deal only in blackmail and violence, but Malik is portrayed flawlessly by Rahim in his first major film role. The glimpses of his innocence, the reading classes and excitement to be on a plane, do more to help us empathise than any love story could have done. Like laughing at Stalin's geeky yearbook photo. These moments, along with his friendship with Reyeb, are what lead us to invest our interest in his outcome.
As with the aforementioned Leon, you are likely to emerge from this film shocked not by the bloodshed, but by how much you felt for the guy holding the weapon. On another level entirely it is simultaneously fascinating and amusing to see race wars reduced to playground politics. A Prophet really does give us a whole new spin on evil.
Ashleigh Arnott
The film follows nineteen-year-old Malik (Tahar Rahim) as he embarks on a six-year prison sentence. He falls in with a Corsican gang almost immediately who provide him with protection, determination, and an all-too-vivid guilty conscience. As Malik becomes more educated in matters of language, friendship and alliance, his livelihood is threatened in proportion to his growing self-confidence.
On paper, it is difficult to care for this character who appears to deal only in blackmail and violence, but Malik is portrayed flawlessly by Rahim in his first major film role. The glimpses of his innocence, the reading classes and excitement to be on a plane, do more to help us empathise than any love story could have done. Like laughing at Stalin's geeky yearbook photo. These moments, along with his friendship with Reyeb, are what lead us to invest our interest in his outcome.
As with the aforementioned Leon, you are likely to emerge from this film shocked not by the bloodshed, but by how much you felt for the guy holding the weapon. On another level entirely it is simultaneously fascinating and amusing to see race wars reduced to playground politics. A Prophet really does give us a whole new spin on evil.
Ashleigh Arnott
