A Prophet, a French prison drama about the evolution of a small-time street punk into a manipulative criminal mastermind, might have been edged out of a best foreign language film spot at the Oscars (the winner, the Argentinean The Secret in Their Eyes is scheduled for release in May), but it is a magnificently assured work that bares comparison with classics such as Scarface (1983) and Once Upon a Time in America (1984). A Prophet does not aspire to the grand panorama of these Hollywood epics, but makes up with intimacy and detail for what it lacks in breadth.
The film opens with Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), who has just graduated out of juvenile detention, being sent to an adult prison for an assault on a police officer. He is an outsider in every sense. To the dominant prison gang of Corsicans he is a “dirty Arab,” while the Muslim population regard him as a half-caste without religious affiliation. He is clearly bait.
He comes under the wing of crime boss Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup), who runs an extensive criminal operation from within the prison walls. When Ryad, an Arab prisoner who could testify against him is admitted to the prison, Malik is told to meet him for sex and kill him. This is to be done with a razor blade hidden under his lip. Malik is no killer, at least not yet. He tries to inform the prison authorities and gets a short, sharp lesson about who really runs the prison. It’s enough. Malik may be short on experience, but he sees the world through clear eyes. While Malik lacks moral principles, he also is without self-pity. He is a blank slate upon which his prison experience will write.
The murder is committed. It is a confused, bloody affair, and with this Malik obtains some degree of protection. Director Jacques Audiard avoids any kind of glorification, making the murder a dirty business from its beginning as a sexual tease to the spasmodic death throes.
Malik is taken on as a kind of dog’s body to the Corsican gang, the members of which despise him but learn to use him as a link to the Arab prisoners. From here on in, Malik is constantly learning, taking on any task, no matter how demeaning, to advance his own position. He learns to read from well-meaning prison teachers, and he learns to plot from Luciani, who he watches closely even as he fetches bread and makes coffee for the gang. He is working toward his own salvation.
Rahim does a spectacular job in fleshing out Malik’s character, from the empty vessel that arrives in prison to the increasingly adept criminal. At no point does Malik come over as evil, he just takes color from the world he finds around him in order to survive. His mentor is Reyeb, the first man he kills, who follows him as a voice of conscience (albeit utterly amoral) through the story. Reyeb tells his murderer-to-be that he should try and come out of prison a little cleverer than when he went in. In this he succeeds all too well.
A Prophet takes its time with the story, lingering with sociological detail over aspects of prison life, and we watch with fascination as Malik’s life fills out first with material possessions, and then with aspirations to power. He becomes friends with another North African, Ryad (Adel Bencherif), who later becomes the man on the outside who helps run a smuggling ring for Malik. It is a friendship that gives the latter his first taste of social responsibility. Malik becomes godfather to Ryad’s son, and takes over the
care of his wife after he dies.
Luciani’s (Niels Arestrup) is a powerful supporting role, his pale stare creating an almost palpable sense of assurance that is in direct contrast to Malik’s fledgling efforts to sculpt his own identity. As the movie progresses, the balance shifts. This is the dynamic that gives this long film its robustness, letting it combine an almost documentary fascination with the rituals of prison life and a strong dramatic arc that keeps the audience locked into the story.
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
When the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces 50 years ago this week, it prompted a mass exodus of some 2 million people — hundreds of thousands fleeing perilously on small boats across open water to escape the communist regime. Many ultimately settled in Southern California’s Orange County in an area now known as “Little Saigon,” not far from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where the first refugees were airlifted upon reaching the US. The diaspora now also has significant populations in Virginia, Texas and Washington state, as well as in countries including France and Australia.
On April 17, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) launched a bold campaign to revive and revitalize the KMT base by calling for an impromptu rally at the Taipei prosecutor’s offices to protest recent arrests of KMT recall campaigners over allegations of forgery and fraud involving signatures of dead voters. The protest had no time to apply for permits and was illegal, but that played into the sense of opposition grievance at alleged weaponization of the judiciary by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “annihilate” the opposition parties. Blamed for faltering recall campaigns and faced with a KMT chair
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
RSS