Tahar Rahim is Malik, a young Arab sentenced to a six year prison term. Malik is a petty criminal at worst, not prepared for the cold brutality of hard prison. He is instantly a pariah amongst the other prisoners. He's not particularly religious, so he doesn't fit in with the other Muslims. He's basically a terrified loner, which in prison is like having a bullseye on your back. It doesn't help that the guards are basically just window dressing. They couldn't have the prisoners' safety less at heart than if they shivved them in the back themselves. The guards', and the warden's only job seems to be to aid one man: Cesar Luciani.
Cesar is the head of the Corsican mafia within the prison walls. An older but vigorous bear of a man, with fiery eyes forged through too many years of backstabbing and murder. When he and his crew of followers enter the courtyard and take their seat, it's like the king of some distant land watching from atop his throne. Whatever he wants, he gets. If somone needs to die, they disappear. When Cesar spots the hapless Malik for the first time, he knows there's somebody who can be exploited. Cesar needs an Arab man killed in a part of the prison he can't access, but Malik can. He demands Malik murder this man in cold blood. If he doesn't do this, Cesar will murder Malik instead. Malik, not a hardened criminal, fails in every attempt to get out of it, until reluctantly he is left with no option. The killing is awkward, unskilled, and horrific. The man's bloody death haunts Malik, both literally and figuratively.
The killing changes Malik. Eventually he earns enough respect to be one of Cesar's most trusted lieutenants. Malik learns to think on his own, fashioning his own plans and working outside Cesar's circle. He walks amongst all the different factions in the prison, and learns to use them all in different ways to further his goals.
A Prophet is best described as a season of the HBO series Oz
, condensed down into a 2 1/2 hour package. Most of the film's key moments take place within the prison walls, although Malik does eventually earn day leave which he uses to run errands for Cesar. Much like Oz, the dynamic inside jail is simple: it's kill or be killed. Everybody has an angle. Everyone knows more than they're letting on. Treachery lays around every corner. The quality that sets A Prophet apart from others is it's depiction of Arabs, who I don't recall ever seeing in such a prominent role in gangster films. It's a refreshing twist on the "rise to power" idea we've all seen so many times before.
A Prophet was a nominee for Best Foreign Language film at this year's Academy Awards. Much has already been said about the performance of Niels Arestrup as Cesar. It's simply remarkable, the power and dominance he has over every scene. Even his glances speak volumes. He's so great that often it seems as if he's overshadowing Rahim. Not that Rahim isn't great, he plays the role of Malik to perfection, it's just that the roles are very different. Malik is a blank slate. He learned early on is his prison stay to keep whatever emotions he has in check or risk losing everything. It makes sense for him to be more reserved.
Some will compare Malik's ascension to the similar rise of Scarface, but where that film was all bluster and big guns, A Prophet is working on a totally different level. This is a gangster film that simply must be seen, by all who claim to be fans of the genre and even those who aren't.
