A Prophet (2009, Dir: Jacques Audiard)

It’s easy to see why this French offering was nominated for Best Foreign Language film at the 2010 Academy Awards. It’s a nice little film which turns the Hollywood tradition of prison movies on its head and actually manages to say something new and exciting about the genre.

We awake in an almost dreamlike vision of a holding cell, and watch as Malik – guilty of assaulting a police officer and looking like Kelly Jones from The Stereophonics – is led to serve a six-year prison sentence. Inside, he swiftly falls under the protection of members of the Corsican mafia, a relationship which he struggles to maintain as external temptations threaten his way of life and his approaching release date.

The camera work is just right, a handheld style making full use of the claustrophobic and cramped environments, and although the narrative does extend to a few scenes outside the prison, the majority of the film plays out within its walls.

The only drawback about the film is its length. At a running time of 150 minutes, it really does seem to be at least 30 minutes too long. Anything longer than 2 hours is okay if there is enough variety in the film, but not in this instance where the prison environment begins to get stifling.

Around an hour into the film, Malik grows a small moustache, making him look less like Kelly Jones, and more like Harry Enfield’s scouse caricatures. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get this image out of my head though the remainder of the film as I was expecting him to turn around at any moment, raise his eyebrows, and with a dumb smile say “Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh”...