A Prophet

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Welcome back to Bad Dads Film Review! This week we’re diving deep into the underworld of cinematic mentorship and criminal patronage with our Top 5 Godfathers (but no, not that Godfather), followed by a look at Jacques Audiard’s powerful crime drama, A Prophet (2009). Grit, transformation, and the shadows of paternal influence are the order of the day.

🧑‍🦲 Top 5 Godfathers (but not The one)

1. Wilson Fisk – Daredevil (Netflix, 2015–2018)
   Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin isn’t your traditional godfather, but his brutal control over New York’s criminal underbelly is pure mafia boss energy. A sophisticated monster with a strange sense of honour.
2. Don Eladio Vuente – Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul
   The tequila-sipping kingpin of the Mexican drug cartel oozes menace with every silky word. His presence is felt even when he’s not on screen — the ultimate shadowy power figure.
3. Vito Rizzuto – Bad Blood (2017–2018)
   Based on the real-life Canadian mafia boss, this cold and calculating don played by Anthony LaPaglia is a lesser-known, yet incredibly compelling patriarch of organised crime.
4. Frank Lucas – American Gangster (2007)
   Denzel Washington’s portrayal of the Harlem heroin kingpin gives us a charismatic, intelligent, and terrifying boss who redefined what it meant to be a godfather figure — smooth on the surface, lethal underneath.
5. Tony Soprano – The Sopranos (1999–2007)
   Okay, maybe this one’s bending the rules. He’s not a “godfather” in title, but as a family man and mob boss, Tony is a modern icon of conflicted criminal power, filtered through therapy and existential dread.

🎬 Main Review: A Prophet (2009)

Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet (Un Prophète) is a blistering French prison drama that explores the transformation of an illiterate, mixed-ethnicity 19-year-old named Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) into a calculating and powerful player in the criminal world.

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik begins as a naïve, vulnerable inmate who quickly becomes ensnared in the orbit of the Corsican mafia. Forced to commit murder early on, he becomes the reluctant pawn of César Luciani (Niels Arestrup), a domineering Corsican godfather-type figure who rules the prison's power structure. Over time, Malik learns the language, the politics, and the trade, gradually carving out a space of influence for himself — sometimes through grit, sometimes through shocking brutality.

A Prophet is a film about survival, assimilation, and the birth of a new kind of power. Malik’s journey isn’t just one of criminal evolution — it’s a searing indictment of institutional failure and a meditation on how the oppressed can learn to wield the tools of their oppressors. It’s also one of the most compelling character arcs in modern crime cinema.

So join us as we trace the power dynamics of godfathers in media and witness the rise of an unlikely prophet in one of Europe’s finest crime fil

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