- Overview
Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.
- Release Date
26 August 2009
- DirectingJacques Audiard
- Budget
$13,000,000.00
- Revenue
$17,874,044.00
- Stars
Videos
User Reviews
See moreAndres Gomez
23 June 2021
Great movie in all aspects; great story and script, great cast and great performances. One of the best movies I've watched lately.
CinemaSerf
20 April 2024
Tahar Rahim is really good in the dark, gritty and vicious prison drama. His character - "Mailk" is an illiterate eighteen year old who is sent to jail for six years for attacking a police officler. One inside, he has little protection but the clothes he stands up in. The place is governed by "Luciani" (Niels Arestrup). He's a man of Corsican descent who has twenty or so hoodlums to do his bidding and the guards in his pocket. It's the Arabs who are causing him some chagrin so he alights on the newbie to be his instrument of murder. Initially terrified and reluctant, it's soon clear that a choice isn't on his list of options. Do this, though, and he will be protected and, well, alive. He elects on the survival path and becomes gradually more riled upon by his boss whilst learning to read from his friend "Ryad" (Adel Bencherif). By half way through his sentence, he has grown in confidence, is trusted with more "delicate" tasks and even gets the odd day's leave in the outside world. As the demographic of the inmates changes, it falls to both him and "Luciani" to adapt - and that's quite a challenge. Now it is a bit long, and takes a while to get up an head of steam, but once we know who's who and likely to betray or kill the other this developer into a tautly directed and compelling story that doesn't shirk from conveying the epitome of a dog-eat-dog environment. Arestrup also delivers really strongly here as the man with the power who slowly realises that change is not his forté, not is patience nor any likelihood of release looming. It's a little predicable, but gives us a rough ride that conveys criminal and cultural clashes with an earthy plausibility and it whizzed by.
More Like This
Amores Perros
A fatalistic car crash in Mexico city sets off a chain of events in the lives of three people: a supermodel, a young man wanting to run off with...
See more
Walk the Line
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in...
See more
American History X
Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we...
See more
Run Lola Run
Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. She has 20 minutes to...
See more
Snatch
Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track...
See more
Scarface
After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami...
See more
The Untouchables
Elliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the...
See more
Freaks
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him...
See more
Bad Education
Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 1960s. Father Manolo, director of...
See more
48 Hrs.
A hard-nosed cop reluctantly teams up with a wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him, in order to track down a killer.
See more
And it Begins
In the wake of their father's death, Capomandameto ANGUS: SILAS and ALESSIO course through up keeping their father's legacy and the end of their...
See more
Ocean's Eleven
Less than 24 hours into his parole, charismatic thief Danny Ocean is already rolling out his next plan: In one night, Danny's hand-picked crew of...
See more
K-PAX
Prot is a patient at a mental hospital who claims to be from a far away planet. His psychiatrist tries to help him, only to begin to doubt his own...
See more
The Interpreter
After Silvia Broome, an interpreter at United Nations headquarters, overhears plans of an assassination, an American Secret Service agent is sent...
See more
The Good German
An American journalist arrives in Berlin just after the end of World War Two. He becomes involved in a murder mystery surrounding a dead GI who...
See more
Jackie Brown
Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught in the middle of smuggling cash into the country for her gunrunner boss. When the cops try to...
See more
Lucky Number Slevin
Slevin is mistakenly put in the middle of a personal war between the city’s biggest criminal bosses. Under constant watch, Slevin must try not to...
See more
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Some of Sin City's most hard-boiled citizens cross paths with a few of its more reviled inhabitants.
See more
Mean Streets
A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.
See more