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A Prophet (Un prophete)

A Prophet (Un prophete) (2009)

tomatometer

97

Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 144
Fresh: 140 | Rotten: 4

Featuring an impressive star turn by newcomer Tahar Rahim, A Prophet is a French gangster film filled with arresting, immediate details.

97

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 1

Featuring an impressive star turn by newcomer Tahar Rahim, A Prophet is a French gangster film filled with arresting, immediate details.

audience

88

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 21,531

My Rating

Movie Info

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 succès 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

Aug 3, 2010

$1.5M

Sony Pictures Classics

Cast

All Critics (144) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (143) | Rotten (4) | DVD (4)

A movie that stands with the best prison thrillers from any country; a film that vividly illustrates the connection between prison and the violent, radical form of Islam that keeps much of Europe on edge.

April 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comments (5)
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Audiard has talked about the prospects of a sequel to A Prophet. With the foundation he has built here, it would be a welcome one.

April 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Associated Press | Comment
Associated Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The success of Malik is sheer American dream via France: Anyone can make it if they try hard enough. Make it at what, of course, is always the question.

March 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Audiard never overplays the new experiences facing Malik, be they violent or touching. Yet his tender regard for our complicated hero shines through.

March 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A really satisfying, meaty film.

March 15, 2010 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A Prophet solidifies director Jacques Audiard's standing as a criminal mastermind whose work leaves genre classifications in the dust.

March 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | Comment
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is a brutal prison crime drama that shows the transformation of a small-time criminal into a big-time crime boss.

December 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | Comment
Laramie Movie Scope

A movie that has more in common with Jean Genet than Frantz Fanon, but there's enough insights into white colonial domination of Arab peoples to make this a cut above the standard prison melodrama. Highly recommended.

October 6, 2010 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | Comment
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Like Goodfellas without the visual fizz, or Scarface played straight, this is, quite simply, one of the greatest prison films ever made.

September 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Flicks.co.nz | Comment
Flicks.co.nz

An epic-styled comment on the practical side of getting through modern life, with spirituality and loyalty playing side parts to gaining raw skill.

August 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | Comment
Window to the Movies

... a riveting portrait of a prison education.

August 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Parallax View | Comment
Parallax View

...a journey of hard-fought survival told with an unforgettable verve and originality.

August 9, 2010 Full Review Source: PopMatters | Comment
PopMatters

the rarest of crime films: One that turns us inside out with concern not only for Malik's physical safety, but for the safety of his soul

August 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | Comment
Q Network Film Desk

A cult classic in the making, Jacques Audiard's A Prophet receives a much better shake on DVD than its main character does in prison.

August 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

While A Prophet might lack the ambiguity and the moral complexity to make it a classic of its genre, it is an excellent work by most standards.

July 8, 2010 Full Review Source: MovieMartyr.com | Comment
MovieMartyr.com

A taut prison drama by crime-flick specialist Jacques Audiard.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | Comment
eye WEEKLY

That rare film that tries to do too much, yet carries the heavy load of its themes with ease. Audiard dreams big, and his movie is unquestionably a classic crime film, because it transcends all of the conventions of the genre.

July 4, 2010 Full Review Source: DCist | Comment

Revela-se trágico justamente por refletir uma triste realidade: a de que, antes de funcionar como centro de reabilitação, o sistema penitenciário atua principalmente como uma excepcionalmente perigosa faculdade do crime.

June 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | Comment
Cinema em Cena

Un intenso, brutal y formidable relato sobre el ascenso criminal dentro de la cárcel como forma de supervivencia. Excepcional labor protagónica del casi debutante Tahar Rahim. No suele abundar cine como éste; el crimen sería perdérselo.

May 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total

Un prophète s'élève au même niveau que ces grands films auxquels il sera inévitablement comparé tout en parvenant à s'en dissocier pour imposer ses propres méthodes.

April 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Panorama | Comment

Unsentimental and amoral, Jacques Audiard's A Prophet is a French gangster/prison thriller that nearly lives up to the flattery...

April 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Comment
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

For the most part, this tough-minded tale maintains its distinctive edge.

April 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | Comment
Creative Loafing
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for A Prophet (Un prophete)

The first 30 minutes is so marvelously orchestrated. The rest of the movie doesn't capture the same tension but it is still an incredibly rich and engaging movie. Gritty, riveting, and powerful, you'll be thinking about this movie, weeks after watching it.

June 14, 2011
Albert Kim

Super Reviewer

A Prophet is a crime drama thriller vividly featuring a hard-fought survival and position in power at a prison caste system in fine and original detail. Surpassing of conventions that aggressively underscores the dynamics of power, politics, spirituality, and gang economics and culture, A Prophet is a rare masterpiece

September 10, 2011
Jan Marc Macababayao

Super Reviewer

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Latest News for A Prophet (Un prophete)

January 13, 2012:
How a 1991 Disney Memo Predicted the Current State of the Movie Industry
Twenty years ago, Jeffrey Katzenberg saw some problems on the horizon -- and he was right about a...

March 2, 2010:
A Prophet Earns Raves for Rahim
Odds are you haven't seen "A Prophet" -- but it's in the running for a best foreign language film...

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Foreign Titles

  • Ein Prophet (DE)
  • Un prophète (FR)
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