“A Prophet” no doubt is a highly energetic and entertaining film~ I managed to catch up with a couple of the director’s early work in last year’s French Cinepanorama, and noticed the interesting common traits I mentioned above that run through almost all of his protagonists~ I think “An Education” can be a fitting title for most of his films as they all show the protagonist learning or growing to be a better man in one way or another~

you mentioned social realism and racial issues, but Audiard is in fact quite cautious when responding to such questions, like he is more willing to see his film more as a genre film instead of a realistic depiction of social and racial problems (you may read his comments in these two interviews)~

I would say this film is a case of Hollywood genre filmmaking par excellence, only it is not made in the US but in France, and I won’t be surprised if it goes on to win an Oscar in March~

A Prophet was fantastic, it felt nothing like 2h30 mins. I haven’t seen many of Jacques Audiard’s films (missed his retrospective in last year’s French Cinepanorama, although I did warm up to The Beat That My Heart Skipped which I saw overseas), but now I’m definitely checking out his back catalogue. Not only does Audiard reengage our interest with the prison as an environment, his flourishes of social realism and racial issues lift A Prophet way above the norm (it would be wickedly ironic if they called the film ‘An Education’ instead). Though I’m so-so on the magic realism moments (scenes with Reyeb were well intergrated, others not so), I haven’t rooted for such a well crafted anti-hero in a long time. Highly recommended!