#A Prophet

[novice-at-everything]

Tag the who you think the person you reblog this from is

[gayzing-away]

Tahar Rahim in A Prophet (2009)

[supercalifragipopculturevomit]

Daniel's picks for The New York Times poll, "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century". Half of these I haven't seen yet, so that's the upcoming weekend sorted for me.

p.s. click THIS for even more film recommendations from our beloved cinephile 🎬 yes, it includes Rocco and His Brothers.

[lucy-moderatz]

[theshipsong]

goddamn man child you fucked me so good that i almost said i love you

[eyra]

why did no one tell me about noah kahan

[skyhawkstragedy]

not Cirie telling Cameron while he’s sitting on the red chairs “that’s a good seat”

[addictivecontradiction]

Un prophète, 2009

[harrison-abbott]

[unpun1shable]

MANIFESTATION WORKS 🙌🙌

[hiddenbyleaves]

A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009)

[nitw]

[based on this legendary post]

[thedawnlist]

A Prophet (2009) dir. Jacques Audiard

"You just want to use us. So? As long as it's good for everyone."

Though often praised as a gritty, realist masterpiece - a saga that traces the evolution of a voiceless Arab prisoner to a figure of quiet power - beneath the stylistic brilliances lies a deeper discomfort; the film never quite escapes the outsider's lens.

While Malik is the film's protagonist, he's not fully given interiority - he's shaped by violence, used by systems, and watched by the camera with a kind of cold fascination. Arab and Muslim identity in the film is never explored in its own terms. Which is why it is no surprise that Malik becomes powerful not by reclaiming his own heritage, but by navigating and eventually mimicking the tools of his opressors.

Arabness is appropriated and Islam only appears in half-baked gestures. Malik's spiritual life is muted, as his growth is not measured in soul, but in strategy. The film posits Malik as both other and object - sympathetic, but not self-defined. It perfectly plays into the textbook defintion of Orientalism.

In the end, A Prophet tells a compelling story - but from a distance. And while the result may be cinematically stunning, it doesn't ask what it means to be Arab in the West, but instead uses those identities to build myth, to project meaning. However, considering the backlash of Audiard's Emilia Pérez (2024) in its exploitation and trivialisation of Mexico's war on organised crime, this is no surprise.

[thedeafprophet]

I will testify that even if I strongly dislike, utterly hate, and cannot stand a character, I will never go on someones post talking about liking that character and say so. Basic decency and all that