The film that I will be reviewing/ analyzing today is the 2009 French film "A Prophet" directed by Jacques Audiard and starring Tahar Rahim among others. The film in my opinion is a great character developing film that works over the six years that Rahim's character (Malik El Djebena) exists in prison. Audiard uses Malik's appearance and the spectre of the murdered Reyeb in order to demonstrate the change in Malik's character over time.
Audiard plays with Malik's appearance over the course of the six years as Malik goes from being an bald, outcast in the prison to looking more like the Muslim inmates that he will eventually come to be a part of. Malik enters the prison with unclear explanations behind it all. His possessions (a cigarette, string, and a 50 franc note that he tries to hide) shows the almost failure of a life that Malik has lived up until now. A 20 something year old that has spent his life falling in and out of juvenile prisons, Malik has no family outside of prison and no friends inside the prison. As Malik steps through the prison doors, Audiard mkes it very clear that Malik is all alone in the world. Malik; however, is okay with this fact and tries to keep to himself though Audiard shows that Malik is destined to be forced into a world that perhaps proves better for him despite the seemingly darkness of it.
Malik is forced to by the Corsicans of the prison to kill a Muslim, Reyeb. After doing it in order to spare his own life Malik is placed under the protection of the Corsicans. This event is the first signs of Malik developing a place that he belongs. The problem does exist that Malik is a Muslim and the manner in which the Corsicans treat him often reestablishes this fact.
Reyeb's spectre exists in a manner that inspires Malik to become a better Muslim and begin to learn to read and write. He becomes friends with Ryad as he attempts this goal and he becomes closer to the Muslims in the prison partially due to this. Compared to the Corsicans the Muslims of the prison are much kinder to Malik and in a way they become almost a family for him. Ryad makes Malik the godfather of his child and asks him to watch his family after Ryad passes of cancer.
Throughout this Audiard gradually changes Malik's appearance from a person that looks as though he doesn't fit into any of the camps of the prison until Malik looks like the Muslims around him.
Also Malik's amounts of possession increases rapidly so much that he has much more inside the prison than he ever had outside of it. Malik has found his purpose in the prison and this creates two great questions. What will Malik do when he leaves the prison? And is what Malik doing okay even if he is gaining a family and making a living from it?
Malik is a practicing Muslim and appears as if he just trying to survive inside the prison. This is more so the case at the beginning of his incarceration though when he was forced to kill Reyeb in order to survive. As the film progress Malik kills and deals with crime usually for his own gain. Malik becomes more and more like the people that forced him to kill Reyeb.
Malik is a confusing character in that sometimes he seems like a lost lamb just along for the ride in prison. Other times he appears to be a wolf that takes matters into his own hands and works for a better life. Sometimes he appears to be a good Muslim and other times he's more akin to a murdering criminal. Sometimes Malik is the good guy that you root for and sometimes he's the bad guy that you wish would receive his just deserved. Audiard does a great job of creating these questions in the viewer's mind and creating a character like Malik.
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