WINNER of the Grand Prix at Cannes, blistering crime drama A Prophet demonstrates Audiard’s (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) ability to rise beyond a genre to exceptional heights of emotional intensity.

Malik (Rahim) lands himself in jail at 19.

After a violent crash course in the ways of the ruling gang, he slowly begins, through his self-education, to challenge the prison power structures.

And as the long years of his sentence roll on, he uses his ruthless cunning to establish himself as a major new player.

A Prophet moves fluidly from art-house subtlety to genre pyrotechnics in an endlessly powerful and absorbing tapestry of criminal life, which has all the epic human drama of such classics as Scarface and The Godfather.

A Prophet is showing at Harbour Lights this weekend.

Tickets: 0871 704 2060 or picturehouses.co.uk.