Un Prophète (Jacques Audiard, 2009)

Following hard on the heels of the international success of Mesrine, A Prophet is another slice of French prison and underworld life, this time without a biopic backdrop. Audiard gives us an Arab everyman who has fallen through society's security net and for whom prison serves primarily as a means to becoming more efficient and focused as a criminal. Taken by force under the wing of a brutal Corsican gangster as soon as he steps through the prison doors to start a 6-year sentence, 19-year old Malik soon has emotional baggage in abundance as he's given the choice to either kill a stool pigeon or be killed himself.
You can see why critics swooned: it's unglamorous and uncompromising, without treacly redemptions, and yet also suffused with moments of bleak poetry in glimpses of what might have been. But the constraints of the subject matter never give room for anything truly revelatory, and the potential politics of the culture clash within its compromised protagonist are largely neglected too.
There is plenty to applaud too: Tahar Rahim as the natural survivor in the lead role and Niels Arestrup as the posturing gangland boss present compelling performances, and the rife violence is played out far more in the mind and suggestion than in salacious graphic detail. All this makes for a honest and tense low-key crime drama, but there's insufficient additional depth to justify the film's epic running time.

6/10