Tuesday, March 30, 2010

UN PROPHÈTE



Directed by: Jacques Audiard
Run time: 149 min

This movie is the reason why I like films; the story is solid and unforgiving. This is not your usual Hollywood mayhem movie glorifying mafia and crime, and although the story itself centered in a prison, it is not about surviving or escaping, it is about 'An education' in the truest sense of the word.

A Prophet (the English title) serves up crime as a metaphor for life and power. Just like last year's Gomorrah, this is surely 2010 best film not to be missed. The (anti)hero Malik (Tahar Rahim), is a rootless man. From his Mediterranian look people can mistake him for an Arab, French, even Corsican. Malik has no family or friends, he doesn't feel to belong to any social group. Why he is in prison is not clear and like any inmates he say that he is innocent.

As Malik enter the prison to serve his six years sentence, he is an loner newbie, being beaten by other inmates. But opportunities arose as the Corsican mobsters that rule the prison led by Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup), orders him to kill another inmates named Teyeb (Hichem Yacoubi) or he will be killed.

Malik kill Reyeb clumsy, messy and brutal, by hiding a razor in his mouth and use it to slit Reyeb's throat. The murder itself is gore at its best, it will make you squirm. As time goes by, Malik is trusted by Cesar to do his errand, in other words, prison opened opportunities to Malik he would never had in real life. As Malik learns a lot of things (learn to read, speak Corsican, managing to be a small drug dealer), he rose from a newbie to a self-made, self-taught mafia boss and it is too late for Cesar to learn, that his pupil already outsmart him. Malik has undergone a twisted transformation from a nobody to become a somebody.

There is one scene that is very strong and subtle. As Malik is ordered by Cesar to go to Marseille on his leave day (it is really weird that in French prison, prisoner with good behaviour can leave prison for 12 hours and then return to the prison. This chance is used by Cesar to order Malik to do things outside the prison), he passes the metal detector gate at the airport and as the security man check him, Malik all the sudden open is mouth and show his tongue to be checked although he was not asked to.

In prison Malik used to be searched by opening his mouth, so that certain mentality has been imprinted in him no matter where he is. It means that you can take the man out of prison, but not the prison mentality. That one scene itself explain everything about Malik's nature.

Director Jacques Audiard is a talented director. I have seen The Beat that My heart skipped (2005) and I can say that Jacques could be the equivalent of Martin Scorsese or Francis Ford Copolla in Europe.

This film is different than Goodfellas or The Godfather since it use neo-realistic approach by never try to make any scene look beautiful, but real and gritty. It is epic without having need to use wide lenses and good without any marquee name.

If you wonder why you like movies, this one will surely brings you the reason why. A Prophet swept all major categories this year's Cesar Awards, the French Oscars. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival and I can say that all the awards is well deserved.

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