A Prophet

A Prophet (2009) is a prison film whose real subject is education. Malik is nineteen, sentenced to six years, cannot read or write, and has nobody outside. Inside, a Corsican gang leader uses him for a job, and that job takes him somewhere he cannot come back from. Over the following six years Malik learns to survive, learns to read, and learns how to run a system. The strength of the film is that it never celebrates the ascent. Malik is clever and the audience is with him, but what he becomes is not presented as a win. Tahar Rahim was almost unknown and moved to the centre of French cinema on the back of this. Niels Arestrup as César is frightening without ever raising his voice. It took the Grand Prix at Cannes. At 155 minutes the length is noticeable, and that is deliberate: the film is about years passing. Good for: French cinema, prison and crime drama, and watching a character be transformed rather than revealed. Less good for: the violence is sudden and realistic, and one scene in particular is hard. Anyone looking for hope or redemption is in the wrong film.