The Prophet (2014 film)

The Prophet
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Roger Allers
Produced by	Salma Hayek Clark Peterson Jose Tamez Ron Senkowski
Written by	Roger Allers
Based on	The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Starring	Liam Neeson Salma Hayek John Krasinski Frank Langella Alfred Molina Quvenzhané Wallis
Music by	Gabriel Yared
Production companies	VentanarosaFFA Private Bank, Doha Film Institute, Financière Pinault, Participant Media
Distributed by	GKIDS
Release dates	September 2014 (2014-09) (TIFF) August 7, 2015 (2015-08-07) (Los Angeles and New York)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	Canada France Ireland Lebanon Qatar United States
Language	English

The Prophet (full title Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet) is a 2014 animated film adapted from Kahlil Gibran's book The Prophet. The film was produced by Salma Hayek, who also performed voice work. The production consisted of different directors for each of the film's collective essays, with Animation director Roger Allers supervising and credited as screenwriter. Segment directors include Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, Joan C. Gratz, Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar and Michal Socha. The film had an in-progress preview at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.^[1]

On February 5, 2015 it was confirmed that animation distributor GKIDS has acquired North American rights to the film.^[2]

Plot

Kamila, a widowed mother, works as the housekeeper for Mustafa, a foreign poet, painter, and political activist being held under house arrest. Mustafa is guarded by the soldier Halim, who has a secret crush on Kamila. Kamila's daughter, Almitra, has stopped talking due to her father's death, and has become a troublemaker who frequently steals from local merchants. Almitra has seagulls for her only friends; she even seems able to talk to them by making birdlike noises. Halim's pompous Sergeant arrives to tell Mustafa that he is now free, but he must board a ship to his home country by day's end. The Sergeant escorts Mustafa to the ship, and Mustafa spends the time conversing with Kamila, Almitra and Halim, as well as with the townspeople, who regard him as a hero. Mustafa's conversations, ranging in topics from freedom to marriage to parenthood to eating, are animated by the movie's many directors in their own unique styles.

Once everyone reaches the ship, the army imprisons Mustafa in a fortress instead of allowing him to board. The commanding officer labels Mustafa's writings as seditious, and demands that he retract his statements. Mustafa refuses, asserting that his writings are not seditious. Thus, the commanding officer sentences Mustafa to death by firing squad the next morning unless he disavows his writings. That evening, Kamila, Almitra and Halim try to help Mustafa escape. Almitra sees Mustafa through his prison cell window, and talks for the first time since her father's death. Mustafa refuses to try to escape, giving his final animated poem, this time on the topic of death. But he asks his friends to return to the house and rescue all his paintings and writings before the army can destroy them. The next day, Mustafa again refuses to renounce his writings as he is being led to the firing squad in the fortress's open yard. A large flock of seagulls surround him as he is being placed in position. Over at the house, Kamila and Almitra save all of Mustafa's writings and drawings right before the army arrives, and they hide in the woods. Then suddenly they hear loud gunfire and see the flock of seagulls fly out of the fortress. But Almitra insists that Mustafa is all right, as she sees the flock circle around the now departing ship, and imagines Mustafa being aboard that ship.

Voice cast

• Liam Neeson as Mustafa
• Salma Hayek as Kamila
• John Krasinski as Halim
• Alfred Molina as Sergeant
• Quvenzhané Wallis as Almitra
• Frank Langella as Pasha

Release

Home media

The film was released on-demand on January 19, and on Blu-ray/DVD February 2, 2016.^[3]

Reception

Variety awarded the film a positive review, saying "As if it weren't special enough to hear Neeson recite Gibran's sentiments amidst such striking visuals, the addition of music further elevates verses that so many have already committed to memory and which a whole new audience can now discover for the first time."^[4]

References

External links

• Official website
• The Prophet at the Internet Movie Database
• The Prophet at Box Office Mojo
• The Prophet at Metacritic
• The Prophet at Rotten Tomatoes