A Prophet (2009) poster
2009 · drama · crime

A Prophet

Directed by Jacques Audiard2h 35m2009
ElsewhereIMDb7.8107kRT96%Metacritic90TMDB7.62k
  • heavy
  • extreme
Movie DNA

Heavy, steady, extreme drama / crime, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.

Our read · A Prophet (2009) reads as a heavy, steady, grounded drama · crime entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of A Prophet

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a patient French prison rise with brutal moral calculus.

ends bittersweetit stays with youa slow buildgrips by minute 20attention 5/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violencegore

Skip it tonightSubtitled prison violence is too heavy for your tired two hours.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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