A Prophet

This brutal, intense French crime drama takes prison life and its divided, racial politics to a raw level. Malik El Djebena played by Tahar Rahim begins his six year stretch as a fragile, 19 year old, beholden to the Corsican prison gang leader; Cesar Luciani.

As a strictly governed underdog, Malik obeys the command to violently murder his friend and from this point he slowly develops his strength within this corrupt prison structure.

As ‘the eyes and ears’ of Cesar, Malik learns the hard, fast route in criminal survival both inside and outside the prison. Under the threatening rules of the Corsican gangster boss, Malik plays the system on his own terms with his continued guise as prison victim.

The plot weaves a realistic thread of crime drama and racism that builds up level by level with the ‘standard’ film delivery of grey-tinged prison scenes shot inside the bare, dirty surroundings of this institution.

Driven by its charismatic characters and macabre scenes (including a razor concealed inside a prisoner’s mouth) this emotive French crime film doesn’t throw the gauntlet down to other directors but as prison dramas unfold is worth a look….