Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet (Un Prophete)” is an epic prison story /criminal journey in the vein of “Scarface” — except, you know, good. But veteran French director Audiard (“The Beat That My Heart Skipped,” “Read My Lips”) doesn’t deserve all the credit for this skillfully crafted film; newcomer Tahar Rahim (one of our picks for best breakthrough performances of last year) creates a role that capitalizes on his youth and naivete, allowing him to slowly and cunningly evolve into the part of an experienced kingpin.
Rahim’s Malik El Djebena is an illiterate half-Arab criminal whose short life has been devoted entirely to petty crime. However, when he condemned to six years in a grim Parisian prison, he is forced to go beyond small sins into deadly ones. He arrives in the middle of a gang war between the Corsicans and the Arabs, and his mixed heritage causes each group to view him as the “other.” Eventually, however, he is recruited, against his will, by the Corsican leader, Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup, who worked with Audiard previously on “The Beat That My Heart Skipped”), a dysfunctional father figure who threatens him into doing his group’s least pleasant work. He is essentially their housekeeping slave and treated like dirt.
His first prison-bound crime is a visceral viewing experience for the audience, and it’s worse for Malik — you can feel the pulsing queasiness of a murder about to be committed and its emotionally harrowing stuff. But even this early in the film, Rahim displays an impressive authenticity that gives “Un Prophete” an almost observational, documentary-like feel at times. Malik begins at the very bottom of Cesar’s gang and is forced to kill an Arab witness. In surreal,but highly effective moments, this experience haunts him (literally) as he starts to ascend the ranks of the gang, beginning to read, slyly learning to speak Corsican, and developing a business that straddles the prison walls when he’s allowed out on day trips for his good behavior.
Malik may be in the classic mold of the gangster anti-hero, a la Michael Corleone of “The Godfather” and Henry Hill in “Goodfellas,” but there’s an added layer to his character. Race plays a primary role in “Un Prophete,” and Malik’s half-Arab, half-Corsican status informs his experience. He isn’t an archetype we’re used to seeing, and it seems all the more fresh because of Rahim’s easily identifiable talent. It’s not a polarized portrayal of an Arab man, but the actor brings both a skewed heroism and humanity to his character. With an inescapable presence in almost every scene, he is impossible to ignore and even difficult to dislike, despite the crimes his character commits. Malik’s intelligence and ambition are admirable traits, even though they’re fueling less-than-legal efforts. While that morality obviously rests on shaky ground and the concept of the man being a prophet is therefore somewhat dubious, the careful filmmaking, superb acting and overall strength of the sprawling crime saga are too good to deny (And some may feel the protagonist thus does not earn his sort of feel-good ending; which is admittedly somewhat iffy, but these issues do not derail the overall picture).
The combination of Rahim’s freshness and Audiard’s experience works well within the film. As we’ve seen in the director’s previous, praised work such as “The Beat That My Heart Skipped” and “Read My Lips,” he has a defined visual style, occasionally using obscured shots that somehow illuminate the action and his brief, but pointed stylistic tricks (title cards that slam the screen with jail-cell-door like conviction) are never over-abused (one slow motion shot in a hail of bullets with a resigned smile on the face of Malik as if he’s about to welcome death is particularly striking). And aesthetically, the film is very much on point all the way through Alexandre Desplat’s moving score (one of his recent bests), to Stéphane Fontaine’s exquisitely framed and thoughtful lens that elevates the picture and lends it a potency far greater than your average gangster tale.
There’s an obvious love for gangster B-movies here as it plays with the genre conventions, but the film’s look, its strong script, and impressive performances put it on par with top-level dramas such as “Casino” and “The Departed.” [A-]