Un Prophète is a cold, stark and hard crime drama. But there is a remarkable restrain in the screenplay, never once going over the top and thus making it a compelling character drama. It is not about guns, drugs or car chases; Un Prophète is about characters-most importantly about a teenage illiterate French-Arab-Corsican in France.
The story about the rise of a greenhorn to become a crime head against a racial backdrop of Parisian prison is told as Un Prophète examines a fraying social fabric.
During his entry into the prison and initial check up he is asked whether he eats pork .He says no and then yes. An ideal Muslim according to Holy Quran must not consume pork; but Malik does. It reflects a childhood in remand houses and that of minimal adult supervision .But that his origins are ambiguous and beliefs are lucid, does work to his advantage.No sooner is he into prison that he is compelled to murder Reyeb, an Arab who is to testify against the one of the under trial Corsicans, who also control the prison. To live he has to kill. Malik is directly thrown into deep choppy waters. Pushed to the extremes, he innovates in what results in two scenes of great intensity.
The first one is him carrying out his first ever murder –with a blade, which is very unlike a murder you will ever see. Sure you can kill with a blade, but it’s how the blade is hidden and used that is important. Malik watches part horrified as Reyeb dies, blood squirting from his slit neck like a pipe; and part relieved that he has saved himself by taking another man’s life. That Malik is not a killer is demonstrated as he shudders at the bloody outcome of his actions.After he carries out the murder, Malik is under the protection of the Corsican mafia led by César Luciani, but is still derided for his roots. But for Luciani, he’s the prison errand boy and loose clay to mould as he thinks necessary. And later as Malik gains his trust – his eyes and ears. Every group is closed, be it Arabs or Corsicans. But Malik is special now as he has access to the Luciani despite being an Arab. Learning as he goes, keen as a mustard, but never showing anybody so.
And the second scene is that claustrophobic shootout to eliminate an entire gang. Again Malik improvises. By now, he has been through so much that he just takes the risk that needs to be taken to get out of the situation .During that scene in the car, Malik reaches momentary zen .It was as though he was having an invisible cloak that would protect him from all the bullets flying around.
Malik has little or no education when he comes in but learns to read and write on the insistence of his friend Ryad. Ryad’s family later becomes his foster family. He acquires varied skill sets and when gets a chance to be out on parole courtesy Luciani, to carry his outside jobs, he very enterprisingly sets up his own drug network with Ryad’s help.Malik is a guy who seemed to have been in a ghetto most of his life and with no vocational training to speak of. Yet he manages to fly, feel the beach water of Marseilles on his feet, that too on parole! He indeed had come a long way. Although, there is crushing guilt that comes with that as an apparition of Reyeb follows him during his stay in the penitentiary. But he makes peace with that too. Reyeb’s apparition is to Malik, what angel Gabriel was to Prophet Mohammed.
This is a male film at large, with peripheral screen time for women. The only ones present being Ryad’s wife Djamila and the sex worker who comes to Malik for a conjugal visit. Prison has little space for women, so women are found mostly on walls as cut-outs from x-rated magazines which is understood as there is a more testosterone/per square feet than most places in the world. Everyone in prison has to cope with debilitating loneliness. Malik will be alone even when he gets out because Ryad is dying. And for Luciani; since other Corsicans have been shifted to another prison, because of law changes made by Sarkozy government, his control is waning with less number of people around him.
Malik is pro-active and tries to manage what he can as he has outside world access from his parole. But since the Luciani can’t buy allegiance or relatives, he is deemed to do time alone, as a fallen and aging gangster.
Main relationship is between Malik and César Luciani ,which starts off as threatened and threat, master and servant, commander and complier, but lastly the vanquished and the winner, respectively. Because a protégé will allow only so much of himself to be exploited. And one day an incident will be the flashpoint that triggers a revolt and possibly revenge. Malik comes out on top after he plays the rival gangs against each other and we see Luciani, alone and resigned to defeat.
Even after all is done, in the closing scene as he gets out after his 6 years, although he walks home to Ryad’s home with his wife and toddler son, there is no guarantee that Malik will see his 30th birthday. Film has progress but cynicism is not far away too. Despite the title, it represents the resentment in France today whatever the reason may be –political, social, racial, and economical or a lot of everything.
The colour palette seen is pre-dominantly dirty pale blue or cement grey. That helps to show the cold, monotonous and cruel place the prison is. Stylistic elements include use of freeze frames overwritten with bold text to introduce main characters or some events for narration. Music is a stew of surprises with a lot of piano and guitars, but also cries of a muezzin and hip-hop and melody.
Today’s French demographic is potentially racially volatile. The society is boiling underneath with simmering intensity due to its ethnic difference and xenophobia which burst onto its streets in fall of 2005.That the social tension is present is evident in Un Prophète where the Arabs (Muslims) mostly of North African descent bide their time in ghettoised prison cells in the Paris outskirts of Brecourt. The group inside the prison is the microcosm of the society outside. There is struggle for one upmanship and strifes for control over assets.
There is no central defining conflict nor a hidden agenda for any of the characters. Malik’s double-cross that shifts the balance of power between Corsicans and Muslims is a gradual progression than a hell bent sinister plan. Despite being ravaged, he retains that kindness in his soul that should usually dissipates in the event of continued hostility.
Because of its rich layered storyline, Un Prophète is a brilliant example of cinema. The genre is prison/crime drama, but is approached with elements of allegorical references to Islam, Holy Bible, The Prophet and the angel Gabriel. That it is poetic is an understatement and that it is set in a cynic dark world is scripted genius.
Was it all worth the wait and hype? Letterman joked on his show that the moment the clocks gained one hour in US, from first Sunday in November for daylight saving, they slipped in another late night talk show – Conan.
