Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Kinlever Kinlever This is for sure one of the best French movie in last 20-30 years. The other two would be the Blue is the warmest color and The Piano Teacher. But it is not easy to digest the Prophet, when the screen is over, and when you start thinking about it. While everything in the seemingly goes the way the viewer would like to, at the some time, the evil is just starting in the end of the story, because the new mega criminal is born. Malik is, actually, a really nice guy, humble, quite and eager to hear a nice word from anyone. But he is not getting it from almost anyone. Actually anyone who is nice to him can become his friend. By chance, he is forced to choose between killing someone and being killed. And he chooses the first option. That is how he becomes a part of the prison gang, and a type of criminal whose life is worth nothing. It seems he was predestined to that, since his birth, because he grew up in correctional facility, without family. The most unconvincing part of the story is exactly that original kindness and innocence of his. We find him as a pretty naive boy at the age of 18, too naive for a guy who had a difficult life from his birth. Hard to believe that such a naive guy would survive and catch up with the worst crimes so quickly, But that is being explained by his abnormal intelligence and intuition. So, this is not just a next door small criminal, it is a real jewel thrown in a horrible place. If you look at the story from this point of view, its believable. But then we open a different question: are people with abnormal abilities allowed to kill, whenever necessary? Malik is cute, quiet and likable, but he is dangerous and notorious like hell, when faced with the danger for himself. Where is the moral of the story? How should we identify with it? Kill and betray before somebody else betrays and kills you? Where is the line not to cross?

bcigel THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER First of all, the cinematography, scenario, thrill musics that reflects the atmosphere of the prison was excellent. Other than that, Audiard studied the history of religions very well. And, this movie is not about a man goes to prison and challenges to survive. This movie must watch to be considered all the religions and prophets at the history. In the beginning, Cesar Luciani should be considered the god of the prison and Malik is his eyes, ears, arms, legs to spread his words to people of prison and outside. At the beginning of the film, you can see how he uses Malik cruelly. And, Malik had no choice except doing what he is told for surviving. That is his fate. But then, he is got a revelation from the man's ghost(or angel whatsoever) he killed. He learns to read, learns new languages, communicate with everyone surrounding him. When the movie ends, he gets revenge from Luciano and becomes the prophet of outside of the prison. The movie has some bold references from Bible, Quran, Tevrat, and lives of Muhammed, Jesus, and some other known prophets. All in all, a perfect crime-drama about the birth of a prophet.

legork This is the first movie I saw of 2016. I certainly hope that it's not prophetic. I think that movies depicting people being locked up in prison hold us in rapt attention because most of us have conscious and sub- conscious fears of being locked up. I certainly identified with the prisoner in this movie because of my fear of being locked up and my fear of people in authority. They're all copies of an authority figure which my father represented to me. Every scene shows the prisoner interacting with authority figures and throws him into deeper complications with authority. His first struggle against authority is striking a blow at a policeman. For this he is convicted to spend the next 6 years in prison. Here he encounter a worse authority figure than the policeman, who is a criminal authority figure, namely of the underworld who makes harsher demands on his obedience than the authority of the law. His obedience to underworld authority ends when he's ordered to murder a Moslem leader. This and the illness of his best friend, also a Mowlem bring him to a realization that there is, after all only one authority to whom he must show obedience and that is Allah. In fact this movie shows the path followed by a prophet according to the Koran: 'We hear, and we obey. We seek Thy forgiveness, Our Lord, and to Thee is the end of all journeys.'" (2:285) The message of the movie is obey and seeing that you must obey someone it might as well be Allah, otherwise you'll find yourself having to obey murderous commands given to you by law enforcement personnel or by criminals.

onde-de-choc A Prophet is a French gangster film set in a prison divided largely by Corsicans and Arabs in a fight for power. Director Jacques Audiard gives a gritty and authentic look at prison life and that is full of racism and crime. The film does a good job on putting some original touches on a familiar story, making it a solid French film to see.Malik (Tahar Rahim) is a nineteen year old who was just sentenced for six years in prison for presumably attacking cops, which he will be the first to deny. He cannot read and barely can write but can speak both French and Arabic. He comes to prison scared and timid but he does not leave that way.Out of the blue he gets bribed with a cigarette to meet up in the yard with a man named Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup). Cesar Leds the Corsican gang and acts as the Don Corleone inside the prison. Because of his Arab ethnicity, people assume he is a practicing Muslim, even though he is not. But that is precisely why he is sought after by Cesar and the Corsicans, a way to infiltrate the other Arabs.This effectively means he is claimed by the Corsicans as part of their society. Without choice, Malik is told that he needs to kill a Muslim inmate and if he does not, he will be killed. Naturally, Malik is reluctant and had a few failed attempts to get out of it but Cesar and his men make it very clear that they run the place.The next few scenes are incredibly intense as he is instructed as to how to kill the Muslim. They show him exactly how to strike him and even give him a razor blade to do it. He must hold the razor secretly in his mouth and wait for the right time to strike the victim directly across his throat. Horrific as those scenes may be, they ended up being the best in the entire film.Over a year later he is still doing hacks for Cesar. It is clear that is has started to transform into a new person. The transformation is easy to see physically; as he gains some weight, his hair is longer and he even grows a mustache. But he also grows as a person; he learns how to read, speaks Corsican and is fearless.After serving three of his six years, Cesar decides it is time for Malik to have a leave day. Which is a day where Malik is able to leave prison from 7am and stay out until 7pm. Cesar is powerful enough to pass the paperwork through the prison with priority and bypass the judge. The leave day is not for leisure however, Cesar has business for Malik to do on the outside for him.What Malik does with his 12 hours of prison leave is not all just for Cesar though. He ends up scoring some drugs and makes plans with Ryad (a friend he met in prison) for selling it. He wisely does not tell Cesar this, as Cesar made it very clear that prison leave should only be for his business only. It is at this point that we truly see Malik creating his own independence and start to slowly drift away from the Corsicans. Cesar sees it too.A Prophet is somewhat of a lengthy film, coming in at 155 minutes. There are parts that definitely drag on a bit, mostly in the middle act. But the beginning sucks you in and there is enough going on to get you through the middle until you come to the excellent conclusion. The film itself seemed is well constructed and carefully executed. Therefore, I was not surprised to find out that Jacques Audiard hired former convicts to his crew in order to get the real prison experience.Audiard's work did not go unnoticed. This film was nominated for an Oscar and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film. It won the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and swept all of the major categories (9 in total) at the Cesar Awards, which is the French equivalent of the Academy Awards.All said and done, A Prophet is a compelling coming of age story of a man that came from the outside world with very little and over time prison taught him how to not only read and write but the politics and economics of gangster life. It is an epic crime saga that provides a great story and amazing acting. Just be ready to devote some time for it, the 2 and a half hour runtime does drag a little bit in the middle.