A Prophet

Not just one of the best gangster films I've seen in a decade but one of the best films. Period. Niels Arestrup is excellent as the Corsican kingpin Cesar Luciani. Newcomer Tahar Rahim impresses at all levels as Maghrebin Malik El Djebena, who has the street intelligence of a young man with an innate sense of survival, with restraint and realism. Malik perpetrates enough violence to survive but never any more than he needs. He also straddles the ethnic rivalries and racism between the Italians, the Egyptians, the Maghrebin, the Corsicans etc and comes out on top. Director Jacques Audiard first got the idea for this film when he showed his 2008 film The Beat My Heart Skipped in a French prison & was appalled by the conditions he saw there. His previous films: A Self Made Hero, Read My Lips, The Beat My Heart Skipped. Must see!