February 28, 2010: Un Prophète
I feel like I want to say so much about Un Prophète, and yet I know that I shouldn’t. This Cannes grand jury prize winner from last year is a complex and violent 2.5-hour tale which never lets up for a minute through its run time, brilliantly depicting a young man’s journey through the gangster underworld of France.
Starting out in prison as he commences a 6-year sentence, Malik is clearly vulnerable and lost. Quickly taken in by the Corsican contingent despite his arab roots, Malik diligently works for them doing menial jobs, and proves his allegiance through a brutal and fitfully planned murder of one of the other inmates, whose ghost continues to haunt and advise him through the rest of the film. Malik grows to be trusted by the Corsican ringleader, moreso after several of the Corsican gang are released unexpectedly due to political wrangling in the outside world, leaving the boss with a decidedly smaller entourage. Malik continues to deliberately appear dumb and out of the loop, when in reality almost everyone he talks to provides additional information or opportunities, and he quickly progresses to a position of significant underworld power both inside and outside the prison.
There’s violence where there needs to be violence, but this is much more about the mind games and the risky but sometimes rewarding strategies chosen by each individual. Malik has a compelling and charismatic personality, and is clearly very smart, and it’s unfortunate that he had to go to prison in order to live up to his potential. He is an almost uncanny judge of character, which is what earns him the prophet nickname, but I felt that this near-mystical element was underplayed and didn’t quite fit in the grounded story.
Un Prophète is a relentless experience, and absolutely justified as France’s entry for Oscar consideration in the foreign-language film category, in which it was nominated but did not win, although it was my top choice. I won’t spoil any more of the story for anyone up for a viewing of this rewarding film.
Tough but also intelligent crime drama.
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