Intensity rocks the screen in 2009 Palm d'Or winner A Prophet (Un Prophete), making it an essential “must see” for cinema lovers. Director Jacques Audiard thrusts the viewer into a modern French prison from the first shot, where we must latch on to Malik (Tahar Rahim) for the ride. Without a back story, we have no idea why this naïve, shy young French Arab now must face six years with hardened criminals. He hardly seems capable of lasting a week: his shoes are ripped from him during his first yard break and he appears to be the most obvious target for abuse among the inmates.

Soon Malik is delivered to the prison's Corsigan gang boss Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup)—a steel-eyed Godfather who runs the place tighter than the warden. Cesar and his bodyguards control the guards through bribes and intimidate other inmates through violence when they don't cooperate. Cesar presents an offer that Malik cannot refuse.

Malik occupies a unique position useful to Cesar since Arabs are sectioned off from the other inmates, and Cesar wants a new arrived prominent Arabic prisoner (Hichem Yacoubi) killed so that he cannot testify in court. Innocent and inexperienced, Malik must murder this man or face certain death at the hands of Cesar's henchmen.

The hand-held camera carries us inside Malik's head as one of Cesar's lieutenants demonstrates how to conceal a razor blade inside his mouth before severing his victim's throat. We can almost hear Malik's heart beating throughout the crucial scene … tension building … before the sudden inevitable graphic violent struggle erupts. The murder is brutal, bloody and unlike anything captured on film before.

Malik is transformed. While Cesar considers the young Arab a dutiful servant, Malik takes an independent attitude—that he is learning a valuable trade and going into business for himself. He somehow treads a very narrow line between the Corsicans and Arabs, more than once requiring a virtual miracle to come out alive. After a narrow escape late in the film, an ally to the man Malik was forced to kill queries “Who are you? … a prophet?”

Much of what makes this film work so well centers on this question. Just who is this intriguing character? How such a blank slate is able to tread the treacherous waters of the prison and learn the ropes so quickly and deftly is a true mystery. We'e never let totally inside Malik's mind no matter how closely the camera follows his actions, yet he remains on top of every situation as he matures over the film—it’s a subtle transformation, but very much akin to the more overt orchestrations that Coppola makes with Michael Corleone.

Even more mesmerizing than the protagonist is Cesar, however. Arestrup's riveting performance alone is sufficient reason to check this film out. To describe his quiet powerful delivery as intense is understating the case—his eyes communicate his joys and sorrows, and the final scene makes the once powerful man amazingly ordinary and pitiful. A Prophet renders the most striking and haunting scenes of 2009.