Prorok

A Prophet lies exactly halfway between the more “commercial” Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 and “artsy” Gomorra, and it has a decent cast (more unforgettable mobster faces – casting is the key element of this kind of film). Tahar Rahim is excellent, and the laws of the criminal world are simple and brutal. I just had a hard time keeping track of all those Corsicans, Arabs and Italians between whom the protagonist flits and who are willing to cooperate with any side in order to destroy the third one. (16.01.2010)

Don’t be scared of those 150 minutes declared by the movie. For me, that was one of the reasons why I kept postponing watching A Prophet and that was a great pity. It is a very strong gangster movie in which Tahar Rahim’s inconspicuous face constantly surprises you. You actually wouldn’t have thought that he could take what the screenwriters cooked up for him and despite his effort to lead normal life you can’t help but wonder whether you would be able to withstand such psychological stress in his place. And since they keep asking Tahar whether he eats pork, I’d like to invite him for a nice piece of pork chop with a potato salad for his performance… (24.02.2018)

An incredibly well-filmed mob movie, in which all the poetry of crime stems from negative vibrations, and the storyline of the rise of the rank-and-file to being the big boss draws energy from moral relativism. It seems like everything is allowed in today's world, so why not make a hero out of the defective product of a rotten society? I only regret that A Prophet did not express more temperance and ran to an epic width. Greater tightness and clearer dramaturgy would help the film out. Even so: together with Gomorrah and The Baader Meinhof Complex, this is one of the most disillusioning probes into the heart of darkness in contemporary Europe. (06.11.2009)

Hell on Earth begins for him, for me doors open into movie heaven. A picture that took great advantage of the “gap" in crime sagas, i.e. the time spent in prison. Usually movies begin at the end (or end and the beginning) of a prison term, or they jump it with a caption reading “X years later". Audiard manages to create a really raw and unpleasantly authentic atmosphere that is at the same time full of poetry, the type of stuff that Michael Mann often smuggles into his movies. Simply a masterly, slow-moving movie. Nothing more, nothing less. And nothing else is needed. (16.09.2009)

This is one of the hot candidates for the best film experience of the year, which surpasses even the very famous mafia sagas of the past. It is an unvarnished probe into today's French underworld, where a handheld camera and a selection of settings and actors provide fully authentic immersion into the world of thieves, all sorts of traders, and drug smugglers in today's multicultural France. French, Corsican, Arab, and Italian gangs compete for a place in the sun. The film depicts the rise of a petty delinquent from a Paris suburb who ends up in prison, builds his standing, and climbs the ladder in the art world thanks to the services of an experienced mafioso. Virtually every moment of the film felt believable to me and I had no problem with the logic of the plot, which rarely happens to me. Prison, as portrayed by Jacques Audiard, is an extremely unwelcoming place to live, and the view of underworld members is devoid of any nobility and mythology typical of American mafia sagas. However, the film has one flaw in that it is not all that accommodating to viewers, so it is sometimes quite difficult to orient oneself in the abundance of characters with typically Mediterranean-tanned features and in their motivations. Overall impression: 95%. In addition to the mentioned authenticity, the main advantage of Audiard's film is also the psychology of the characters. It is not just about types, as is the case with Tarantino, for example. (01.02.2010)

Or how a modern-day The Godfather might look. The prison environment is captured well here and the razor blade scene will probably haunt my dreams. The execution of the razor blade killings is absolutely brilliant and gruesome. The main actor clicked with me, even though he's an asshole, he has something about him that can make you root for him or at least hope that he'll die later than the others. (18.08.2017)