FI: A Prophet

A Prophet is one of the best films I've seen in a long time. It's meticulous without feeling slow, and socially challenging without losing sight of the story of an individual. A Prophet tells the tale of a Malik, a young French-Arab who enters jail alone and illiterate, but quickly comes under the sway of the powerful leader of a Corsican gang. Malik starts out as a petty criminal, but conditions at the jail -- as well as the system itself -- harden and shape him into something else. At turns brutal and beautiful, realistic and fantastic, yet always compulsively watchable, A Prophet is not to be missed.