Malik (Tahar Rahim) is sentenced to six years in prison. He’s an outcast within the prison, unable to find shelter in any real party within the systems political groups. He’s bullied, stolen from, approached by sexual deviants. There’s no way Malik can survive on his own within the prison system. Enter Reyeb, a Muslim figurehead. The Corsican gang has been given orders to kill him and since Reyeb has approached Malik for sexual favors the Corsicans give Malik the option of either killing Reyeb or being killed himself. It’s the start of an association that will provide a stepping stone for Malik to climb the ranks within the prison and possibly satisfy Malik’s own plans.

QUALITY:
Every now and then a BD comes across my work pile that manages to grab a higher grade despite not performing at the highest level of BD display that it possibly could. The reason being? Ambiance, texture, the use of aesthetics to provide the most accurate view of the world within the BD’s feature film. A Prophet is one of those films. For starters the film is not your average run of the mill prison story. Its like a combination of Shawshank Redemption meets Scarface, if you can imagine. The interior prison shots are grainy, gritty, colors are gray and gloomy and ugly. There are moments of clarity when your meant to experience them within Malik’s transformation inside of the prison walls but for the most part the flawed appearance of the film texture is a character amongst itself to put you within the setting. Exterior scenes are vibrant and detailed which offers up the statement of freedom, room to stretch, a happier place (for the most part). As usual I have to give praise to the type of Blu-Ray release that flaws itself for the betterment of its overall delivery. A Prophet is a 155 minute masterpiece about corruption, the human spirit, and provides a running social commentary. Audio is fantastic in either a French or German mix with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Amazingly the spirit of the prison is alive with cellblock doors opening and closing in all corners of the room, voices muttering somewhere to your left and right in front and behind you, and main dialogue stands out strong amongst it all.

BONUS FEATURES:
*Commentary track with Director Jacques Audiard, Actor Tahar Rahim, and Co-Writer Thomas Bidegain. French w/ English subtitles so if your really interested the subtitles won’t be an issue. I however didn’t have time to watch the film with and without.
*BD Live
*4 Deleted Scenes (Not in HD)
*Rehearsal Footage (Not in HD)
*Screen Tests (Not in HD)
*Theatrical Trailer (HD) along with a slew of other trailers for other films (Also in HD)