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Okay, so what do you feed your film addiction with after catching Inception and Micmacs on the big screen? There is a truly great film on its way to dvd in August— “A Prophet” / “Un Prophete”. There is no other film that is so engrossing on multiple levels. It’s one hell of a story of a young man’s transformation and evolution within the confines of a prison with a spiritual dimension unlike any other film that I know of. Yes, spiritual. No, that’s not in the church going, holier than thou, self-righteous vein. It’s in the hardcore walk the path no matter where it takes you sense of spirituality–even if that means coming ‘back’ to aid the man cornered into killing you. Oh yeah, there’s more than a few things to wrap your head around in this totally engaging film. Tahar Rahim’s performance is incomparable. Yes, incomparable. He’s absolutely incredible from beginning to end. The film is much more than its gangster/prison genre vehicle. Director Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain (and others) wrote the dense substantial screenplay that takes this story far beyond guns and greed to issues of fate, destiny, and purpose of a person’s life. Can a film about life in prison convey truths about ethics, relationships, the value of languages and education and transformation? Of course. “A Prophet” just does it better than any other film so far.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/aprophet/
om mani padme hum jewel in the lotus wahupa qi prana universal life energy
47whitebuffalo's Blog 
RubyTwoShoes said,
July 23, 2010 at 5:49 am
I saw this at the movies a while a go now, and it is nice to come here and be reminded of its grandeur, you are so right, the film was epic
47whitebuffalo said,
July 23, 2010 at 3:40 pm
“Epic”–yes, RubyTwoShoes–that’s a great word for the intellectual scope of the fim. This was one movie I did not want to end. I couldn’t believe that my son and I were the only people at that particular showing. Everyone else was seeing The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”–which is a very fine film in its own right–but “A Prophet” beats it hands down.