Prophet

Theatrical Release Date: 2010 02 26 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 043396343566

Studio: Sony Pictures

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Graphic Violence, Nudity, Profanity, Sexual Situations, Drug Content]

Summary: An impressionable and vulnerable Arabic man gets thrust into a hellish prison, and ironically discovers greater opportunities for success than he ever possessed outside of the bars, in this violent melodrama from French succ?s d'estime Jacques Audiard (The Beat That My Heart Skipped). Tahar Rahim stars as Malik El Djebena, a petty criminal incarcerated for six years. Once inside and subjected to all of the standard brutalities that most prisoners endure, he is quickly educated in the "ways" of the prison, an institution torn violently between gangs of Corsicans and Arabs. The head Corsican thug, C?sar Luciani (Niels Arestrup), offers Malik an ultimatum: either he rubs out an Arab inmate named Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi), or he himself dies. Not only does Malik succeed with the hit, he earns the begrudging respect of the other prisoners, and -- after securing several days' release for good behavior -- uses off-time to forge a deeper and more multi-layered network of criminal ties than he ever dreamed possible. But as his own power and confidence grow, they threaten to outstrip C?sar's own insistence on submission and obedience at all costs. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Film Presented – Cannes Film Festival Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival Film Presented – Toronto International Film Festival Film Presented – London Film Festival Best Foreign Film – Independent Spirit Awards Best Foreign Language Film – National Board of Review Best Foreign Language Film – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Film Presented – Sundance Film Festival Best Foreign Language Film – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Presented – Rotterdam International Film Festival Best Foreign Language Film – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Supporting Actor – L.A. Film Critics Association Best Foreign Language Film – National Society of Film Critics Best Foreign Film – Austin Film Critics Top Ten Film – Austin Film Critics

Features: Delve into the criminal underworld with commentary
Deleted scenes
Rehearsal footage

Prophet

Format: DVD

Release Date: 08/03/2010

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 155 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) French,Portuguese,Spanish

Subtitles: English,Portuguese,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Prophet
1. Chapter 1 [5:46]
2. Chapter 2 [5:16]
3. Chapter 3 [5:00]
4. Chapter 4 [6:54]
5. Chapter 5 [6:40]
6. Chapter 6 [4:10]
7. Chapter 7 [3:53]
8. Chapter 8 [4:07]
9. Chapter 9 [7:19]
10. Chapter 10 [5:52]
11. Chapter 11 [6:38]
12. Chapter 12 [6:59]
13. Chapter 13 [5:04]
14. Chapter 14 [7:17]
15. Chapter 15 [3:29]
16. Chapter 16 [7:38]
17. Chapter 17 [:26]
18. Chapter 18 [3:54]
19. Chapter 19 [4:08]
20. Chapter 20 [7:15]
21. Chapter 21 [6:05]
22. Chapter 22 [6:06]
23. Chapter 23 [6:48]
24. Chapter 24 [4:11]
25. Chapter 25 [4:29]
26. Chapter 26 [4:01]
27. Chapter 27 [3:16]
28. Chapter 28 [2:48]

Perry Seibert

Most prison movies dredge up drama from the horrific institutionalized brutality behind bars, and while Jacques Audiard's crime drama A Prophet never shies away from the cruelty of an inmate's life, it focuses on much more than just that. The film stars Tahar Rahim as Malik, a 19-year-old Arab just beginning a six-year stretch in a French prison. He is without friends on the inside, and quickly comes under the thumb of leonine Corsican tough-guy C?sar (Niels Arestrup), who orders Malik to kill a fellow inmate or be killed himself. After completing the task, Malik is haunted by visions of the man he murdered, but he also sets about taking classes in order to educate himself. As his complicated relationship with C?sar evolves, the older man starts trusting Malik with more and more dangerous missions, including delivering information and money to people on the outside after Malik earns the right to take day trips away from the jail. All the while, Malik begins laying down the criminal network he will need to survive once he leaves the joint. What elevates A Prophet above most other prison films are its structure and its protagonist. The movie is paced like a novel, with chapters that slowly build tension, rather than a series of events that hurtle toward a climactic prison break or riot. This is first and foremost a character study, and Malik -- shunned by fellow Arabs for being with the Corsicans, but never earning the respect of the Corsicans because he's Arab -- is a character worth studying. He's smart, though not well-educated; capable of violence; interested in sex but not love when it comes to women; and capable of supreme loyalty and self-sacrifice for men who have shown him the same. There are religious elements to the story that might not translate to non-Arab viewers, but that hardly gets in the way of the film's powerful narrative grasp. As Malik learns to negotiate the complicated series of payoffs and favors he must perform to keep various factions within the prison from harming him, we get an understanding of why, for this character, rehabilitation doesn't exactly mean leaving a criminal life behind. He's a survivor, and we see how he learns to be a better criminal while arguably becoming a better man at the same time. Malik changes substantially during his time in lockup, and Tahar Rahim signals those changes in very physical ways that range from his posture to his stride to the hardening of his facial features. He's matched well by Arestrup -- who comes off like a Corsican Ray Winstone. He's fearsome, forceful, and seemingly unstoppable -- the kind of bad guy who makes you root for Malik even when our hero still shows signs of being someone we ourselves would fear. And it is Rahim's spectacular and remarkably unshowy performance that keeps us riveted to this compelling and unflinching look at how prison can change someone. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Jacques Audiard  Director 
Jacques Audiard  Screenwriter 
Alexandre Desplat  Composer (Music Score) 
Thomas Bidegain  Screenwriter 
Tahar Rahim  Actor 
Niels Arestrup  Actor 
Adel Bencherif  Actor 
Reda Kateb  Actor 
Hichem Yacoubi  Actor 
Jean-Philippe Ricci  Actor 
Gilles Cohen  Actor 
Antoine Basler  Actor 
Leila Bekhti  Actor 
Pierre Leccia  Actor 
Foued Nassah  Actor 
Jean-Emmanuel Pagni  Actor 
Frederic Graziani  Actor 
Slimane Dazi  Actor 

Country: France,Germany,Austria