A Prophet & City of God - Power, Poverty and Conflict.

Despite differing in both time period and location, City of God (2002, Dir. Fernando Meirelles) and A Prophet (2009, Dir. Jacques Audiard) share many similarities in their themes.

Starting with poverty, the least applicable thematic link between the two. Whilst all the characters in City of God clearly live in abject poverty, right the way through the 20 or so years the film covers, the same simple statement is more difficult to make when looking at A Prophet. Set in a prison, it can certainly be assumed that almost everyone is doing pretty badly for money (at least when the profits from their crimes are taken away!), but it doesn't really push this angle in the same way City of God does. In City of God we see the occasional glimpse of the richer, better world just on their doorstep, physically close but realistically a world away. In A Prophet, the drabness of every single person and thing in the prison, and in fact outside, does nothing to dispel the notion that the entire world is in fact like this.

In A Prophet, power could be described as the single most important thing in the movie. When Malik arrives in the prison, aged just 19, he holds no power whatsoever. The film is as much about the tipping of the balance of power as it is about the actual progression in the story, the two being tightly intertwined. The Corsican Mafia who Malik is able to get into favour with early in the film hold all the power initially, but by the end of the film Malik is able to leave prison with a full-on bodyguard of protectors from the now-powerful Muslim gang. The transition between the two is slow, a key turning point being when Luciani, a Corsican who arranges for Malik to get day leave from the prison, discovers he is using this same day leave to sell drugs. He attacks Malik and causes some temporary damage to his eye, but from this moment the audience knows he's lost the power. And he knows it too.

In City of God, there is also a balance of power, although presented slightly differently due to the larger time period covered. Early in the film the power is held by the "Tender Trio", a fairly "neighbourhood friendly" gang. Pretty quickly though the gang starts to fall apart, as the guys are not totally cut out for a life of crime. In their place comes a much more dangerous boy, Lil' Dice, who after killing a motel full of people and one of the Tender Trio, starts to take the power for himself. The film then jumps forwards 10 years, where Lil' Dice, now known as Lil' Ze, has taken control of almost all the city through his drug empire. The balance of power shifts between him and his main rival Carrot during their gang wars throughout the 1970s, ending as the next generation kills him off and intend to take over the city themselves, much like Lil' Ze did originally.

Conflict is the final area I will look at, and really, it's fairly simple. Conflict invades every minute of City of God. Characters and random people die left, right and centre in this film, especially in the fatality-heavy second half. The whole film is about, effectively, one massive war that has raged since the 1970s (and continues now, to the point where it was actually too dangerous to go there and film).  A Prophet, on the other hand, does not hammer home a theme of conflict. It's always there, in the way people glare at each other across the prison courtyard and huddle in little groups, but it rarely manifests itself beyond the odd shower fight or prison killing. I feel I must be pretty desensitised at this point to consider that as "not hammering it home".

Overall, City of God and A Prophet share some key underlying themes, which although sometimes reinforced and introduced differently, make them feel at times to be similar movies. Most important to this feeling is the constant feeling of entrapment, whether directly through poverty (in City of God) or directly through imprisonment (A Prophet).