Shifting power

A Prophet
18, Nationwide

A Prophet is an astounding, wholly gripping French film which is both a prison drama and a gangster thriller, and my guess is that, when it comes to the best foreign film category at this year’s Oscars, it’ll be between this and Michael Haneke’s White Ribbon. Obviously, I cannot say which will win, just as I can’t yet say what I won’t be wearing to the Oscars. Every year, it’s the same: they don’t invite me and I then have to worry about what not to wear. Should I not wear the oyster-pink chiffon? And, if not, what shoes am I not going to put with it? I do wish they’d stop not inviting me. It’s more trouble than it’s worth.

Anyhow, A Prophet is directed by Jacques Audiard who also directed The Beat that my Heart Skipped (the one about the fella torn between a life of crime and being a concert pianist, as can happen) and Read my Lips (the one about the ex-con and the deaf lady) and is shaping up nicely as one of the most gifted and exceptional directors around. He is particularly skilled at getting inside the heads of his characters, who are always interesting, multilayered characters, which is good, as you wouldn’t want to get inside the head of a Sandra Bullock character. (Sandra Bullock: how does she choose her films these days? With a blindfold and pin?)

Our character here is Malik (Tahar Rahim), a 19-year-old illiterate French Arab who has been brought up in juvenile homes and arrives in prison to serve a six-year sentence for beating up a cop. He intends to keep his head down and do his time but, instead, a wily and malevolent Corsican gang boss (Niels Arestrup), who runs his businesses from his prison cell, presents him with an offer that he cannot refuse: murder a fellow prisoner or be murdered yourself.