Jacques Audiard directs Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup and Adel Bencherif in this French prison drama where a bottom-of-the-food-chain Algerian boy slowly climbs up the crime pecking order through cunning and patience.

This blew me away at the cinema on original release. Gritty with moments of fantasy metaphor. Well acted but never sacrificing its tension by forcing a flashy monologue. The progression of Rahim’s Malik is gentle and fraught with risk. The position he finds himself at by the end seems quite fantastical considering he was an illiterate without ‘country’ who the lower punks beat up for his shitty trainers in the opening moments. Yet his sly climb to safety is credible, with impactful small scale bursts of shocking violence. You feel his soul be challenged, pruned, nourished and strengthened by surviving the prison system. Even his little bit of second act wealth and power initially (believably) goes on porn, prostitutes and PlayStation yet eventually begins to be invested into quite a wholesome, respectable future outside. A long movie that earns every moment.

9

Perfect Double Bill: Dheepan (2015)

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