A Prophet (2009)

Great movie in all aspects; great story and script, great cast and great performances. One of the best movies I've watched lately.

Tahar Rahim is really good in the dark, gritty and vicious prison drama. His character - "Mailk" is an illiterate eighteen year old who is sent to jail for six years for attacking a police officler. One inside, he has little protection but the clothes he stands up in. The place is governed by "Luciani" (Niels Arestrup). He's a man of Corsican descent who has twenty or so hoodlums to do his bidding and the guards in his pocket. It's the Arabs who are causing him some chagrin so he alights on the newbie to be his instrument of murder. Initially terrified and reluctant, it's soon clear that a choice isn't on his list of options. Do this, though, and he will be protected and, well, alive. He elects on the survival path and becomes gradually more riled upon by his boss whilst learning to read from his friend "Ryad" (Adel Bencherif). By half way through his sentence, he has grown in confidence, is trusted with more "delicate" tasks and even gets the odd day's leave in the outside world. As the demographic of the inmates changes, it falls to both him and "Luciani" to adapt - and that's quite a challenge. Now it is a bit long, and takes a while to get up an head of steam, but once we know who's who and likely to betray or kill the other this developer into a tautly directed and compelling story that doesn't shirk from conveying the epitome of a dog-eat-dog environment. Arestrup also delivers really strongly here as the man with the power who slowly realises that change is not his forté, not is patience nor any likelihood of release looming. It's a little predicable, but gives us a rough ride that conveys criminal and cultural clashes with an earthy plausibility and it whizzed by.