esrosedotblog

When the world is not cooperating, I try to do something I know I will like.

So yesterday, I binge watched the three hour glory of

The Prophet (2010)

This is Jaquees Audiard masterpiece about a Corsican/Muslim kid, in prison, who manages to become the center of his own enterprise (drugs). An empire in the making.

This is where I first saw two actors who I immediately followed. Tahar Rahim is the kid in prison who gets taken under the wing of Neils Arestrup, a powerfully ugly Dutch actor.

That the story owes more than a little to the Oedipus legend is beside the point. But do watch out for your "servant".

The kid is assigned to become the Boss' Arab. A derogatory term of course. He runs errands and cooks meals and watches. Watches. Watches. And so do we.

He gets to apply his learning in a one day furlough to the outside. There he crams about as much mischief and entrepreneurship as he can.

I love this movie.

Everyone in it is superb. The prison life is very convincing. It was filmed in a recently disbanded prison where the walls still talked. Even we can hear them.

There are riots. There are beatings. There is a lot of blood. There is brutality.

There is redemption of a sort.

Just my kind of film. This is such a 5. So 5. So good.

Labels: best films, films