"A Prophet (Un Prophete)" Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

"A Prophet," the latest film from acclaimed French director Jacques Audiard ("The Beat That My Heart Skipped") garnered a great deal of praise at this year's Cannes Film Festival. The 16 critics working for indieWIRE named it the best film of the festival (over such works as Michael Haneke's acclaimed "The White Ribbon" and Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds"), and it won the Grand Prix prize, the second most prestigious after the Palme d'Or.

It has gone on to general critical praise and is France's official submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film. The trailer for its American release is now online, and it looks pretty much like it'll match its hype.

The film follows Malik El Djebena, an Arab living in France who goes to prison and is recruited by Corsican gangsters for missions outside of jail. He wins their confidence but ultimately uses what he's learned from them to start an organization of his own, and conflicts grow. Audiard has claimed he made the film predominately to portray life for a French Arab, as he felt it hadn't yet been represented in film.

It looks beautifully directed, and an early critic blurb given in the trailer says "Just as epic as 'The Godfather,'" and I'm inclined to say it certainly looks that way. At 150 minutes, "A Prophet" really could be as epic as its gangster predecessor, and by the looks of it as heavily focused on character over stylization as well.

"A Prophet" will receive a limited release in the United States on February 12, 2010, with a subsequent DVD release to follow soon after. There also is potential for a wider theatrical release if it manages a win at the Oscars, though "The White Ribbon" is sounding like the shoe-in for the Foreign Language category.


View the trailer for "A Prophet" below. Thoughts?