Most movies nominated for best foreign film barely, (rarely) make it to American screens. They’re basically the fare of eccentric or pretentious art houses (I’m talking about you Angelica), with very limited runs. Among this year’s Oscar pics I’d managed to see only the overrated and strange “White Ribbon” but A Prophet was top of my list. It’s playing at the Angelica and also at the tiny Brooklyn Heights cinema so of course I went to see it in my hood. The story revolves around Malik, a young Arab man who was a juvenile offender in and out of the system and is about to begin his first stint in an adult prison. He’s hardly innocent but is naïve and painfully unprepared to do hard time. On his first day he’s essentially forced to commit a murder, which gains him the “protection” of the Corsican mob. Many of the Italian mobsters are doing time in a foreign jail and they basically run the prison, controlling the drug trade and the guards. It’s a dog eat dog world with lots of factions and divisions. In addition to the Corsican’s there’s the Aryan brothers try to muscle in while keeping the burgeoning Muslim population at bay. Malik walks a fine line and somehow manages keep one step ahead of danger and death. He’s shifts alliances and no only stays alive but builds a reputation and the beginnings of his own empire. With a running time of over 2-½ hour the movie unfolds at a leisurely pace but it keeps your attention. The character development and maturing of the Malik is realistic and the violence is graphic but it hey, it’s prison movie. Interesting and worth a look.