Director Jacques Audiard calls his film A Prophet his “anti-Scarface”. That’s a handy guide as to what to expect in this riveting crime flick. There is none of Tony Montana’s glamour, no camaraderie ala Goodfellas. Instead, A Prophet follows one central character, a French Arab named Malik and played by Tahar Rahim, who is forced to survive in prison with no one but an intimidating Corsican mobster to guide him.Like the best crime movies, A Prophet is the story of how people construct their identities, but it also demonstrates how the Corsican mob is changing. Older bosses like the film’s Cesar (played by Niels Arestrup, The Bourne Ultimatum) are out of date, their glory days harkening back to the days of the French Connection (when heroin was smuggled from France to the U.S. in the 1950s-1970s). Malik is the new breeda boss whose reputation is not made on experience, but on study. After all, he’s in prison. What other option does he have?Director Jacques Audiard depicted the opposite story (a criminal trying to go straight) in his acclaimed The Beat That My Heart Skipped, but both films show his attention to detail and his flair for depicting violence without judgment or flinching. Star Tahar Rahim is a new talent, previously appearing as a police officer in the French horror film Inside. Together, they’ve crafted a film that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2010 Academy Awards. Although it lost to another fine foreign crime film, The Secret in Their Eyes, that shouldn’t keep you from seeking out this movie. Malik’s transformation onstage never loses our sympathy, even if we’re disgusted by his actions. It also succeeds in bringing to life a culture unknown to most American viewers, and that brief glimpse is well worth the effort of seeking it out.