A PROPHET 
Directed by Jacques Audiard
Certificate 18
****

This French prison drama is an early contender for crime flick of the year: made by celebrated director Jacques Audiard, it has become a massive hit in France.

It has a hard-boiled reality about it, with the viewer pinned down by Audiard’s ladling of a huge dollop of penned in claustrophobia backed by  a soundtrack of echoing, heavy clangs of prison doors slamming shut on you as you follow the trials of the leading man.

We meet Malik (Tahar Rahim), a criminal with a six-year stretch ahead of him. At first, his natural inclination in this hellhole of a jail is to keep his nose clean. The place is run by Corsican gangsters, led by kingpin Cesar (Niels Arestrup) and the last thing he wants to do is get muddled up in the politics of the place. But he soon realises he needs allies. He gets roped into the political life of cells and corridors when Cesar forces him to kill another inmate.

From here on in Mailk has to work for the gangster, forced into representing his interests on the outside when Malik begins to get day releases to prepare him for the world outside. But while Malik could become a patsy, he is too strong a character for this to happen easily: using his time behind bars to educate himself, create his own clique and establish a criminal network.

This is an immensely watchable film. It may not shed too much light on the real situation of the sons and daughters of people who have ­emigrated to live in France and find themselves beset with poverty and the associated ­problems that come from being a second generation immigrant. 

Yet whether Malik can act as a metaphor for the French-Arab experience is besides the point. The care taken over the little things, the feel of the prison, the rituals, and some genuinely cover-your-eyes moments means this is a super thriller.
DAN CARRIER