FILM
A Prophet

by Richard Mowe for Boxoffice

A young, illiterate Arab lands in prison and quickly learns the game of survival. A certified new classic in the prison-film genre.

A Prophet - Trailer

A Prophet Trailer (2010) - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Cast: Niels Arestrup, Tahar Rahim, Adel Bencherif, Hichem Yacoubi, Reda Kateb and Jean-Philippe Ricci
Director: Jacques Audiard
Screenwriters: Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain
Producer: Martine Cassinelli
Genre: Prison drama
Rating: R for strong violence, sexual content, nudity, language and drug material.
Running time: 150 min.

excerpt below: view full article HERE

With the honor of being chosen as France’s Foreign language film Oscar contender to add to its Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix, A Prophet has been rightly lauded by critics. 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.

It could have just been another sinewy prison drama, detailing the deprivations and eruptions of violence of life on the inside. It says much for the ability of director Jacques Audiard (Read My Lips, The Beat My Heart Skipped and A Self-Made Hero) that he manages to create an emotional intensity that lifts the commonplace on to a higher plain.