Prophete [A Prophet] (2009)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://www.totalfilm.com)

A prison effectively run by the inmates is the basis for this superb drama. The performances are uniformly excellent and the story engrossing. The French legal system, however, would appear to be endemically corrupt, yet this film evades many of the clichés of the prison genre by avoiding any sentimentality whatsoever - inevitable given the dependence of the wider culture on crime to employ so many to allegedly combat it - and to inform dramas such as this. The conclusion that prisons in the West are universities for criminals is unmistakable. That criminality and everyday life are not truly separate - nor even separable - explains the inability of curative methods in dealing with organized crime and criminals.

Alongside the fact that criminals are collectivists because they lack the cultural skills to be individualists, lies the issue that gangs soon form in prison based on ethnic origin. This matches the world of White supremacism outside the prison system; rendering this movie partly a metaphor for the outside world. Thus, the film is also a treatise on ethnic identity with a central character straddling the various cultures (Arab, Corsican, Italian) to become a prophet without a soul. It then becomes a subtle dramatic disquisition upon those who conflate business relationships with personal ones and upon those who confuse nationality with ethnicity - at the risk of their lives.

Because there is no honor among thieves, the only ethical concept of value here is loyalty - constantly tested by self-interest. The power politics is palpable throughout and you will find yourself rooting for ruthless anti-social types some of whom are never punished for their terrible crimes - only by their still-intact consciences - because, in the end, this movie is ultimately about taking sides and doing the right thing.

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