A Prophet (2009)

Tahar Rahim: Malik El Djebena

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ryad : One day I saw a job ad. For security guard. I didn't have a dog, so I bought one secondhand. I didn't know, so I got a rottweiler. Know what they're like? And his name was Tyson. He came with the name Tyson. He was humongous! See this? This was the size of his poops. He took enormous dumps. Bigger than mine. So I work in a store. A big supermarket. I leave the dog to sniff around. I go outside for a cigarette. Then I try to go back in. I couldn't. He didn't always recognize me.

  Malik El Djebena : Your own dog?

  Ryad : But he was crazy. Tyson was a psycho. I go inside and he comes charging towards me. I panic, reach out my arm. He grabs me like this. I take out my mace, spray him. He lets go. I run out, scared shitless. What do I do? I leave him inside. Soon the employees start coming. I didn't know they used a back door to go inside. The hound had a field day. He tore every last one to pieces.

• Lattrache : What's your thing? How do you do it? What are you? A prophet or something?

  Malik El Djebena : I did Reyeb.

  Lattrache : Fuck, you've come a long way.

• Chef de détention : Any family on the outside?

  Malik El Djebena : No, sir.

  Chef de détention : No one to wire you money?

  Malik El Djebena : No, sir.

  Chef de détention : Friends inside, or outside?

  Malik El Djebena : No one, sir.

• César Luciani : Thatta boy!

  Malik El Djebena : Just another Arab thinking with his balls.

• Ryad : What's your sign?

  Malik El Djebena : Cancer! I'm just teasing. I'm Aries.

• [last lines] 

  Djamila : Where will you live?

  [Malik shrugs] 

  Djamila : Come home. I'll take the kid. Use his bedroom.

  Malik El Djebena : I don't want to impose.

  Djamila : You're not.

• Ryad : "We ate" is the past. Now try the subjunctive. "Would... that we ate."

  Malik El Djebena : People say that?

  Ryad : It's wild. I never did but they do.

• César Luciani : If you weren't spying, what were you doing? Making fun?

  Malik El Djebena : If I was making fun, I'd never have told you.

• Malik El Djebena : What do you got?

  Ryad : Testicle cancer.

  Malik El Djebena : [laughing]  Cancer on your balls?

  Ryad : Stop shouting! Why not make an announcement?

• César Luciani : Fill out a parole application. I'll have it treated in priority. In the meantime, you can go on leave. You go out for me, you come back, and you get paid. What do you say?

  Malik El Djebena : What's the risk?

  César Luciani : There is no risk. Staying here is the only risk.

• Malik El Djebena : If you want a favor, learn to ask.

  Hassan : What do you want?

  Malik El Djebena : What can I get out of it?

  Hassan : Respect.

  Malik El Djebena : Do I look Corsican?

• César Luciani : I'm going to ask a favor of you, not because you work for me, but because I trust you. Understand the difference?

  Malik El Djebena : I'm not sure.

• Jordi : When you get out, what'll you do?

  Malik El Djebena : I don't know. You?

  Jordi : Same thing as in here, only bigger.

  Malik El Djebena : Hash?

  Jordi : Yeah, hash. I'll move big loads. Marbella-Paris, three cars. Six hundred kilos each trip.

  [pause] 

  Jordi : Don't believe me?

  Malik El Djebena : No, I'm just trying to picture six hundred kilos.

  Jordi : It's like this.

  [Jordi holds hash up to his eyes] 

  Jordi : You can't see anything behind it.

• Sampierro : César said you ask no questions.

  Malik El Djebena : César said I'd be paid.

• Malik El Djebena : Want to know how I feel?

  César Luciani : I couldn't care less.

• Malik El Djebena : [his hands tied]  Is this necessary?

  Lattrache : Doesn't bother me.