Is the Un Prophète series a remake of the Jacques Audiard film?

What is the relationship between the film and the series? New prison, new Malik. We explain everything to you.

Return to prison.

Twenty years after imagining A Prophet, transformed into a masterpiece by Jacques Audiard, screenwriters Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit return behind bars for Canal+. Under the leadership of producer Marco Cherqui – also involved in the adventure at the time – they imagined a brand new story, around a brand new Malik El Djebena.

“Marco said to himself that it would be interesting to transform the concept into a series. It’s quite common now to do this kind of serial adaptation,” Abdel Raouf Dafri explains to Première. But at first we said no. Both. What’s the point? The movie is so good. We can only damage it. There is this risk of dirtying something great, just for money. Except that we had the example of Fargo, Noah Hawley’s series, which showed us that we could make a successful adaptation. I watched all of season 1 and it was a huge blast! I realized it was possible to make a great series from a masterpiece.”

Not a remake…

But how can we take up the concept of the Prophet and his prison universe, while inventing something else? Both authors took up the challenge and decided not to do a remake. The Canal+ version is not a repeat of the film with other actors. It’s a different story, which plays on some similar elements. Sami Bouajila, who takes on the role of cell sponsor run by Niels Arestrup at Audiard, explains:

“This series is not at all a remake. Apart from the setting – the prison – and the title, there is another context. The story is different. The characters are different. The background too, even if we find the same kind of plot around the character of Malik who is metamorphosing…”

The story now takes place in Marseille, at Baumettes prison. Malik El Djebena is there. But this is not the same Malik that Tahar Rahim played. This new Malik is a mule, arriving in France with drugs in his intestines. A smuggler who finds himself alone, incarcerated, without hope. His only way out: a rich businessman of Arab origin, who makes rain or shine within the walls. No more Corsican mafia. This Prophet changes his center of gravity.

…but a reincarnation

“The trap would have been to model ourselves on Jacques Audiard’s Prophet,” insists Sami Bouajila. “It’s such a strong film. We had to move away from it. We take different directions compared to the character played by Niels Arestrup. Firstly because my character is more political, he has a Machiavelli-like journey, and he will end up letting himself be destabilized by this young man. It’s really another story. Another treatment. We can’t really compare with the film. My character is not camped like that of Niels, who was a crook installed in his cell there, there is a different social ambition.”

As Nicolas Peufaillit summarizes: “We find the main lines of the story of the film, without the Corsicans, but above all the main lines of a journey. In a word, I would say that this series is a reincarnation! It’s a concept almost around a character named Malik El Djebena. There could be 150 different reboots of Malik El Djebena. We present this one to you…”

A Prophet, the series: season 1 in 8 episodes to watch on Canal+ from Monday March 2.