100
Wall Street Journal
Uncompromising in its style, story and characterizations.
A Prophet (Un prophète)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- France,
- Italy
- 2009
- · 155m
Director
Jacques Audiard
Cast
Tahar Rahim,
Niels Arestrup,
Adel Bencherif,
Hichem Yacoubi,
Reda Kateb,
Jean-Philippe Ricci
Genre
Crime,
Drama
Sentenced to six years in a French prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. To get by, he aligns himself with a powerful Corsican mob boss, steadily working his way up through the ranks, until his success brings him into conflict with his mentor.
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What are critics saying?
100
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
There's also no romanticizing on the part of the director, who proceeds with calm, unshowy attentiveness (even in the midst of scenes of violence), creating a stunning portrait of an innately smart survivor for whom prison turns out to be a twisted opportunity for self-definition.
100
Time Out by Joshua Rothkopf
Why do we care? Because never before have the steps to thugdom, as depressing as that destination may be, been so rigorously detailed, neither romanticized nor negated. Don’t miss.
100
Wall Street Journal by John Anderson
Uncompromising in its style, story and characterizations.
100
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
To borrow a marketing phrase from another, very different film, A Prophet really is the movie that reminds you why you love the movies. Especially movies like this one.
100
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
One of those rare films in which the moral stakes are as insistent and thought through as the aesthetic choices.
100
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
A new crime classic.
100
Salon by Andrew O'Hehir
It's a highly original film made in a familiar context, and an exciting moviegoing experience you shouldn't miss.
100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The best performance in the film is by Arestrup as Cesar. You may remember him from Audiard's "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" (2005), where he played a seedy but confident father who psychically overshadows his son.
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by James Adams
One caveat: At the risk of sounding sexist, let me say A Prophet is an unreservedly male film. Female characters are few and far between, and when they do appear, they pretty much fall into either one of two categories – les mamans ou les putains.
100
Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea
If Malik doesn't remind you of Al Pacino's Michael Corleone on his journey from innocence to corruption in "The Godfather" saga, well . . . he should. A Prophet is similarly, startlingly momentous.
91
The A.V. Club by Noel Murray
A Prophet has been compared to American TV series like "Oz" for its episodic plot and large cast, but it’s more like a Gallic "Goodfellas": thoroughly absorbing, exciting, even poetic. It’s a full evening’s entertainment.
80
Boxoffice Magazine
Whether audiences have the stomach for 150 minutes behind bars remains debatable, but there is no denying the persuasive power of a film that takes no prisoners and pulls no punches.
80
The Hollywood Reporter
What's most immediately remarkable about the film is the raw intensity of its hyper-realistic encounters, hugely enhanced by the superb acting of newcomer Rahim.
80
Empire
A modern French crime epic where the smudges and crossings out do not diminish the passages of great dreamlike power.
70
Village Voice
Sold to the global arthouse market as the "French Scorsese," Audiard does know his genre. A Prophet, the director has said, is the "anti-Scarface."
70
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Rahim is an exciting, unpredictable presence, and Arestrup’s César has a stature that’s nearly Shakespearean.
70
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
Jacques Audiard’s film, which lasts two and a half hours, maintains an unflagging urgency, stalling only when the double-dealing grows too dense.
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