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''A Prophet'' () is a 2009 French
prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...
crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
directed by
Jacques Audiard Jacques Audiard (; born 30 April 1952) is a French film director, producer, and screenwriter. One of the most awarded French filmmakers in history, his international accolades include an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, and three ...
with a screenplay by Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit, from a story by Dafri. The film stars
Tahar Rahim Tahar Rahim (born 4 July 1981) is a French actor. His breakthrough performance was in the 2009 French film '' A Prophet'', for which he won the César Award for Best Actor and Most Promising Actor. He then starred as FBI agent Ali Soufan in t ...
in the title role as an imprisoned petty criminal of Algerian origin who rises in the prison hierarchy. He becomes a mob associate and drug trafficker as he is absorbed into the Corsican mafia and then ingratiates himself into the Maghrebi crime syndicate. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards.


Plot

Malik El Djebena, a 19-year-old of Maghrebi descent, is sentenced to six years in prison for attacking police officers. Alone and illiterate upon his arrival, he falls under the sway of Corsican mobsters, led by César Luciani, who enforces a brutal rule. The prison is divided between two main factions: the Corsicans and the Maghrebis. Malik keeps to himself. When Luciani forces him to be the unwilling assassin of Reyeb, a Maghrebi witness in a trial, Malik gains the protection of the Corsicans despite his North African origin. Malik serves as a low-level servant to the Corsicans, who treat him with disdain. All the while, he is haunted by visions of the murdered Reyeb. When most of the Corsicans are transferred or released, Luciani is forced to give Malik more responsibility. Having secretly learned Corsican, Malik acts as Luciani's eyes and ears in the prison. When Malik earns the privilege of day-long furloughs outside the prison, Luciani relies on him to conduct Luciani's criminal business outside. Ryad, a Maghrebi friend, teaches Malik to read and write, and the two become close. Ryad teaches Malik about his own heritage, introducing him to two other Maghrebis, Tarik and Hassan, and increases his power within the prison. Malik also becomes involved with a prison drug dealer, Jordi. When Ryad gains an early release due to testicular cancer, the three partners organize a drug-running enterprise to sell
hashish Hashish (; ), usually abbreviated as hash, is a Compression (physics), compressed form of resin (trichomes) derived from the cannabis flowers. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, As a Psychoactive drug, psychoactive ...
. But when Ryad is kidnapped by the drug dealer Latif, Malik tracks down Latif's relative inside the prison. He kidnaps the relative's family and forces Latif's gang to release Ryad. When Luciani discovers that Malik is using his day-releases for his own personal enterprise, he punishes him. Malik is sent to meet Brahim Lattrache in Marseille, another Maghrebi, who is involved in a deal between Luciani and the Lingherris, an Italian mafia group. Lattrache is bitter toward the Corsicans for the murder of Reyeb and holds Malik at gunpoint. When Malik spots a deer warning sign, he remembers a recent dream of deer running in the road. He tells his kidnappers that they are in danger of hitting wild animals, and they suddenly strike a deer. Lattrache is impressed by Malik, calling him a
prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...
and agreeing to conduct criminal business with him instead of Luciani, even though Malik admitted that he killed Reyeb. Luciani believes there is a "mole" in his organization and decides to use Malik to assassinate Jacky Marcaggi, the don of the Corsican mafia, for secretly dealing with the Lingherris. But Malik and Ryad have their own plan for Marcaggi: they kill his bodyguards, kidnap him, and tell him that it was Luciani who ordered the hit before abandoning him in the city. Malik takes refuge at Ryad's house. The friend's cancer has returned: Ryad's decision to forego more chemotherapy leaves him just six months to live. He gets Malik to promise to take care of his family (wife and young son) when he's gone. Upon Malik's return to prison, he is placed in solitary for returning late - putting him temporarily out of reach of Luciani's retribution - while Marcaggi uses his influence to wipe out much of Luciani's faction. Once back in general population, Malik joins the Maghrebi faction in the yard. When a now powerless Luciani tries to approach him, two Maghrebis intercept and beat him. On the day of his release, Malik is met by Ryad's wife and son outside the prison. They walk off together, followed by a vehicle convoy carrying Malik's new associates.


Cast

*
Tahar Rahim Tahar Rahim (born 4 July 1981) is a French actor. His breakthrough performance was in the 2009 French film '' A Prophet'', for which he won the César Award for Best Actor and Most Promising Actor. He then starred as FBI agent Ali Soufan in t ...
as Malik El-Djebena * Niels Arestrup as César Luciani *
Adel Bencherif Adel Bencherif (born 30 May 1975) is a French actor. He is best known for his role in the 2009 film '' A Prophet''. Filmography *2004: '' Grande École'' - Ouvrier flash-back 2 *2004: '' Safia et Sarah'' - Un jeune de la cité *2005: '' Ze f ...
as Ryad * Reda Kateb as Jordi Le Gitan * Hichem Yacoubi as Reyeb * Jean-Philippe Ricci as Vettori * Gilles Cohen as Prof * Antoine Basler as Pilicci *
Leïla Bekhti Yasmine Leïla Bekhti (born 6 March 1984) is a French film and television actress. She is best known for her roles in '' Tout ce qui brille'' (2010) and, in 2006, '' Paris, je t'aime'' and '' Sheitan''. Early life Bekhti was born in 1984 in Iss ...
as Djamila, Ryad's wife * Pierre Leccia as Sampierro * Foued Nassah as Antaro * Jean-Emmanuel Pagni as Santi * Frédéric Graziani as Chef de détention *
Slimane Dazi Slimane Dazi is a French actor. Born in Nanterre, he is of Algerian-Berber descent. Filmography References External links

* French male film actors Living people 21st-century French male actors French male television actor ...
as Lattrache * Alaa Oumouzoune as Rebelled prisoner * Salem Kali as Le prisonnier mutin * Pascal Henault as Ceccaldi (un corse) * Sonia Hell as Une matonne


Production

Audiard stated that in making the film he intended to "creat icons, images for people who don't have images in movies, like the Arabs in France," though he also had stated that the film "has nothing to do with his vision of society," and is a work of fiction. Audiard had been thinking about making a film set in prison after he had attended a screening of one of his films in one such institution and found himself shocked by the conditions there. The film's screenplay was submitted to them by a producer and reworked by Audiard and Thomas Bidegain. Audiard cast Niels Arestrup as the Corsican
crime boss A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, mafia don, mob boss, kingpin, or godfather is the leader of a criminal organization. Description A crime boss has absolute or nearly absolute control over the other members of the organization and is ...
César Luciani, after featuring him in his previous film, '' The Beat that My Heart Skipped.'' He met Tahar Rahim, who plays Malik, when they shared an automobile ride from another film set. To ensure the authenticity of the prison experience, Audiard hired former
convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...
s as advisors and extras.


Reception


Critical response

''A Prophet'' received widespread critical acclaim. Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
reports that 96% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 166 reviews, with an average score of 8.3/10. Its critical consensus states that "Featuring an impressive star turn by newcomer Tahar Rahim, ''A Prophet'' is a French gangster film filled with arresting, immediate details." At
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a
weighted mean The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an
average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
score of 90, based on 31 reviews. Reception of the film after its debut screening at
2009 Cannes Film Festival The 62nd Cannes Film Festival took place from 13 May to 24 May 2009. French actress Isabelle Huppert served as jury president for the main competition. Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, for the dram ...
at the
competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...
was good. ''A Prophet'' was picked as the best film of the festival by a group of sixteen English-language critics and
blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
gers polled by the daily independent film news site indieWIRE. Karin Badt at ''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
'' called it "refreshingly free". Jonathan Romney of
Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...
said that the film "works both as hard-edged, painstaking detailed social realism and as a compelling genre entertainment".
Luke Davies Luke Davies (born 1962) is an Australian writer of poetry, novels and screenplays. His best known works are '' Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction'' (which was adapted for the screen in 2006) and the screenplay for the film ''Lion'', which ea ...
of ''
The Monthly ''The Monthly'' is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer ...
'' criticized some of the film's stylistic methodology and content, asserting that the prophetic themes could have been stretched out, but he celebrated the film's central character and his well-executed "improbable rise from invisibility to dominance", describing "what gives he filmsuch dynamic energy is the seamlessness with which this transition unfolds". Davies described the film's main achievement as conveying a character as "someone we care about and gun for", who started life on screen as a blank slate.


Awards

''A Prophet'' won the
BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
for Best Film Not in the English Language and nine Césars (including Best Film, Director, Actor and Supporting Actor), in addition to prizes at both the 2009
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
and the
London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...
. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards. It was France's submission for the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film. On 2 February 2010, when Academy Award nominations were announced, ''A Prophet'' received a nomination for Best Foreign Language film. The other four films in the category were '' Ajami'', '' The Milk of Sorrow'' and '' The White Ribbon'', and the eventual winner, '' El secreto de sus ojos''. ''A Prophet'' won the Grand Prix at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. At the 53rd
London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...
, it won the Best Film Award. It won the Prix Louis Delluc 2009. At the 63rd British Academy Film Awards, it won a BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language. It was nominated for 13
César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...
, tying it with three other films for the most nominations of any film in César history. It won 9 Césars at the ceremony, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. The film was nominated for the Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics. The film also won London's Favourite French Film award in 2010, as well as Best Foreign Film at the 13th annual British Independent Film Awards, which were held in London at the Old Billingsgate on 5 December 2010. ''A Prophet'' was also nominated for Best International Film at the 8th Irish Film and Television Awards, an award that went to ''
The Social Network ''The Social Network'' is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book '' The Accidental Billionaires'' by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networkin ...
''. In a 2016
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
poll of 177 critics worldwide, ''A Prophet'' was voted the 85th best film since 2000. In 2010 ''
Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
'' magazine ranked it at number 63 in its "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" list. Actors Sam Claflin, Karl Urban and Jon Bernthal and filmmakers
Judd Apatow Judd Apatow (; born December 6, 1967) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian known for his work in comedy films. Apatow is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he wrote, produced, and directed his films ''The 4 ...
and
Ryan Coogler Ryan Coogler (born May 23, 1986) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is a recipient of ten NAACP Image Awards and four Black Reel Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe ...
named it as one of their favourite films.


Box office

The film grossed $10,309,555 in France, and $2,087,720 in the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom, the film grossed (), making it the fourth highest-grossing foreign-language film of 2010 in the UK (below '' My Name Is Khan'', ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'', and ''The Girl Who Played with Fire'').


Home media

In the United Kingdom, it was 2012's eighth most-watched foreign-language film on television with 190,000 viewers on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
, and the year's most-watched French-language film.


Cancelled remake

On 22 January 2016, ''Deadline'' reported that
Sam Raimi Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the first three films in the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present) and the ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007). He also directed the super ...
was in talks to direct
Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
's remake of the film, with Neal H. Moritz and Tobe Jaffe producing, and Dennis Lehane writing the script. On February 14, 2020, it was reported that
Paramount Players Paramount Players is an American film production label of Paramount Pictures, focusing on "contemporary properties" while working with other Paramount Global brands. The name alludes to the company's earliest origins as Famous Players Film Comp ...
acquired the project, which became Rapman’s ''American Son'' with Stephan James and
Russell Crowe Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor and film director. Russell Crowe filmography, His work on screen has earned him List of awards and nominations received by Russell Crowe, various accolades, including an Academy Award, two Gold ...
. In 2024, Rapman revealed that the project had been cancelled before the start of filming due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.


See also

* List of submissions to the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film * List of French submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film


Notes


References


External links

* (US) * (France) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Prophet, A 2009 films 2009 crime drama films 2000s prison drama films 2000s French-language films French crime drama films 2000s Arabic-language films Corsican-language films Films directed by Jacques Audiard BAFTA winners (films) Best Foreign Language Film BAFTA Award winners Best Film César Award winners Best Film, London Film Festival winners Films about organized crime in France Films featuring a Best Actor César Award–winning performance Films featuring a Best Actor Lumières Award–winning performance Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor César Award–winning performance Films shot in Paris Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography César Award Films whose director won the Best Director César Award Films whose director won the Best Director Lumières Award Louis Delluc Prize winners Sony Pictures Classics films UGC films France 2 Cinéma films Films scored by Alexandre Desplat Films with screenplays by Jacques Audiard Films with screenplays by Thomas Bidegain Cannes Grand Prix winners 2009 multilingual films French multilingual films 2000s French films Corsican mafia