THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER First of all, the cinematography, scenario, thrill musics that reflects the atmosphere of the prison was excellent. Other than that, Audiard studied the history of religions very well. And, this movie is not about a man goes to prison and challenges to survive. This movie must watch to be considered all the religions and prophets at the history. In the beginning, Cesar Luciani should be considered the god of the prison and Malik is his eyes, ears, arms, legs to spread his words to people of prison and outside. At the beginning of the film, you can see how he uses Malik cruelly. And, Malik had no choice except doing what he is told for surviving. That is his fate. But then, he is got a revelation from the man's ghost(or angel whatsoever) he killed. He learns to read, learns new languages, communicate with everyone surrounding him. When the movie ends, he gets revenge from Luciano and becomes the prophet of outside of the prison. The movie has some bold references from Bible, Quran, Tevrat, and lives of Muhammed, Jesus, and some other known prophets. All in all, a perfect crime-drama about the birth of a prophet.

This is the first movie I saw of 2016. I certainly hope that it's not prophetic. I think that movies depicting people being locked up in prison hold us in rapt attention because most of us have conscious and sub- conscious fears of being locked up. I certainly identified with the prisoner in this movie because of my fear of being locked up and my fear of people in authority. They're all copies of an authority figure which my father represented to me. Every scene shows the prisoner interacting with authority figures and throws him into deeper complications with authority. His first struggle against authority is striking a blow at a policeman. For this he is convicted to spend the next 6 years in prison. Here he encounter a worse authority figure than the policeman, who is a criminal authority figure, namely of the underworld who makes harsher demands on his obedience than the authority of the law. His obedience to underworld authority ends when he's ordered to murder a Moslem leader. This and the illness of his best friend, also a Mowlem bring him to a realization that there is, after all only one authority to whom he must show obedience and that is Allah. In fact this movie shows the path followed by a prophet according to the Koran: 'We hear, and we obey. We seek Thy forgiveness, Our Lord, and to Thee is the end of all journeys.'" (2:285) The message of the movie is obey and seeing that you must obey someone it might as well be Allah, otherwise you'll find yourself having to obey murderous commands given to you by law enforcement personnel or by criminals.

"Un Prophète" is the living proof that sometimes you don't have to have a huge Hollywood budget to make an excellent movie. This french movie is one of the better "prison" movies that I saw lately. The main actor Tahar Rahim did a great job playing the Arab going to jail, starting at the bottom, needing protection, and making his way up in the criminal world. A hard movie about how prisons are supposed to rehabilitate people but most of the time you just start as a low criminal, meet the wrong people in jail, and then climb up the ladder with your criminal offenses. The whole movie is quite long but you won't get bored for a second as you are completely in the story from beginning till the end. Excellent directing by Jacques Audiard and very good performances by all the actors.

A Prophete (Un Prophète), France's official 2010 Academy Awards. Directed by Jacques Audiard. And staring Tahar Rahim as a kid, petty criminal who goes to jail for one reason or another. At first he is trying to take it easy and just make it through his six years smooth (and not be raped). But soon, he is "forced" into organized mafia crime in the prison system. He works his way up in the ranks. This movie was great because it felt like a foreign revelation of "Foreign Shawshank Redemption" and how it is really less of a "innocent serene life" in prison and more of a "Do anything to get by" attitude. Our antihero protagonist, Malik, earns his movie title name "Prophet" in this weird sequence of events. That was the only confusing part of the movie. Besides that, the movie was a fantastic ride through the hierarchy of and French-Arab through the prison system. Audiard wrote this screenplay with 3 other people I believe. The film was great although it follows the "Play-it-Safe" Criteria of camera angles, steady-cam movements, and 1st person narrative film perception. I loved the story, the way the characters progress and the film ends, how the characters increase in tension and digress in trust. The watch-ability is high. around 8.75/10. The SilverRating is: 7/10.