A Prophet–But Not in His Own Land
This French film, winner of the 2009 Grand Prix at Cannes and France’s official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, is a prison drama in the same league as “Shawshank Redemption” and secondarily “Goodfellas”: raw, intense, and violent. It works largely because Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), a 19-year-old French youth of Algerian origins, finds himself in horrific circumstances far exceeding the crime of resisting arrest for which he was found guilty and sentenced to a harsh six-year prison sentence. Having to face situations in which both choices will...