Screenplay by Thomas Bidegain and Jacques AudiardDirected by Jacques Audiard
Tahar Rahim
Niels Arestrup
Adel Bencherif
Premiere date: May 16, 2009 (Cannes Film Festival)
R for strong violence, sexual content, nudity, language and drug content.
Malik El Djebena is a petty criminal incarcerated for six years. Once inside and subjected to all of the standard brutalities that most prisoners endure, he is quickly educated in the ways of the prison, an institution torn violently between gangs of Corsicans and Arabs. The head Corsican thug, César Luciani, offers Malik an ultimatum: either he rubs out an Arab inmate named Reyeb, or he himself dies. Not only does Malik succeed with the hit, he earns the begrudging respect of the other prisoners, and - after securing several days' release for good behavior - uses off-time to forge a deeper and more multi-layered network of criminal ties than he ever dreamed possible. But as his own power and confidence grow, they threaten to outstrip César's own insistence on submission and obedience at all costs.
Grand Jury Prize
2 comments:
Tahar Rahim is currently just a few miles away from me :)) shooting THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH in Hungary :)
He's amazing in A Prophet. One of the best performances of the year, and if there were any justice in the world, he'd be a shoo-in for awards consideration. As it is, though, AMPAS is mostly blind to foreign performances, so he'll have to settle for a Cesar.
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