Hard-hitting French drama eyes Oscar glory
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The French entry for the prestigious foreign language film at this year’s Oscars looks like it could be a shoe-in to pick up the golden gong come 7 March.
Gritty prison drama Un Prophéte (A Prophet) is the latest offering from acclaimed French director Jacques Audiard, whose last film The beat my heart skipped won a BAFTA and swept the Cesar awards - France’s equivalent of the Oscars - winning 8 of it’s 10 nominations.
Un Prophéte has already received rave reviews with the London Times calling it “as epic as the Godfather” while the awards are already starting to pile up.
The film’s star Tahar Rahim won the best actor award at last month’s European Film Awards, while the movie itself picked up the Grand Prix at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. And now the accolades are set to continue with the Independent Spirit Awards, the Golden Globes and of course the Oscars all nominating the film in their respective foreign language categories.
Rahim portrays Malik el Djebena, a young French-Arab convict estranged from his Muslim roots. While incarcerated Malik comes to the attention of a group of Corsican gangsters.
The gang’s kingpin Cesar Luciani - played by the fantastic Niels Arestrup - looks down on Arabs, yet he chooses to initiate Malik into the group after forcing him to choose between killing Reyeb, another inmate, or dying himself. Under the pretence of selling his body for drugs, Malik visits Reyeb’s cell, armed only with a razorblade. What ensues is arguably the film’s most brutal scene. And so begins Malik’s steady rise up the chain of command.
The brutal nature of the story, the star turn from the film’s unknown star, as well as the stylish score - featuring Nas’s blues hip-hop mash Bridging the Gap and Talk Talk’s moody number Runeii - make Un Prophéte a little film destined for big things.
