In a place divided by ethnicity, Malik is viewed suspiciously by both Corsicans and Arabs, as he doesn’t fulfil the necessary racial credentials for either side. That is, until he becomes useful to the leader of the Corsicans, César Luciani (Niels Arestrup).
A Prophet explores themes of power, control and survival, all tropes you’d expect from a film set in a jail. But then, there is the additional aspect of race - Audiard obviously wants to examine a topic that is central to modern ideas of identity in France. With an official policy of assimilation, issues of race and cultural identity in France appear to be constantly on a knife’s edge. In this way, the jail in the film is a microcosm of French society.
Malik represents a typical example of someone who has fallen between the cracks in France’s social system. Let down by the promise of assimilation, he is rejected by his ‘people’ and failed by the State (illustrated by his illiteracy). Left to sink or swim in jail, Malik is given lessons in servitude, seduction and murder by his adopted jail ‘family’. In his debut feature film role, Tahar Rahim makes Malik’s criminal transformation completely mesmerising.
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