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| Tahar Rahim in A Prophet |
A Prophet (Un Prophète), co-written and directed by Jacques Audiard, is a “testosterone fuelled prison drama,” says Broadway, but please do not let that put you off. Thanks to its director and largely unknown cast, this epic film is insightful, multifaceted and empowering.
Malik el Djebena (Tahar Rahim) is a 19 year old, illiterate Muslim of Northern African descent and somewhat estranged from his faith. We meet him at the very beginning of the next six years of his life; behind bars in a screwed up, mob controlled and hugely racist French prison. Keeping your head down is not an option in this place and as the new guy he is exposed, vindicated and manipulated.
Blackmailed by the head of the Corsican mob into “bumping” a traitorous inmate called Reyeb, Malik’s new life turns on its axis. He is now ‘in’. His life in prison is now at the direction, discretion and motivation of César Luciani, head of the jailed mob and dictator of the bent prison wardens. The runt of a powerful litter, Malik is the Corsican’s lap dog but he is protected and can grace the prison corridors with an air of audacity and defiance.
From here Malik’s life becomes a whirlwind and the prison walls are a blank canvas for his evolution and self-portrayal. He enrols in French and economics lessons, builds a sincere friendship, lucrative business relationships and learns, surreptitiously, the language and ways of the gang who gave him this somewhat privileged existence in a trapped world. This is all underpinned by an eerie prominence of Reyeb who appears to Malik, scarred and bloody, in ghostly yet comforting visions. Reyeb is Malik’s internal strength offering an omnipresent shadow to the young ‘Arab’.
With maturity and insight, Malik progresses to dictating his own path both inside and out of the prison walls, fabricating allegiances and feigning ignorance when needed. Unashamedly putting himself in extreme situations that he is both ill-informed of and ill-equipped for, we, the audience, have the constant confidence that he will tread his way through it with relative ease.
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| Tahar Rahim and Niels Arestrup in A Prophet |
In Audiard’s small yet truly compounding and interlocking world, the characters are articulated masterfully, for it could have been so easy for stereotypes to have been represented: The junkie dealer, Gypsy, the increasing prison population of the Muslim brothers, the seedy power of the Corsicans versus the glamorous lives of Italian mobsters and the pathetic, whimpering sneers of the bent wardens. However, with wit and intuition entwined into every one of his characters, Audiard has not just avoided stereotypes but has impressively not hinted any sanction towards them.
This film is brutal and dirty, yet enthralling and told with true spirit. It leaves room for the audience to feel compassion for almost each one of the criminals whose lives we enter. With enchanting dreamlike sequences layered upon the callousness and savagery of organised crime we are left uplifted when the end credits roll and at two and half hours, this is a commendable feat.
