Humanism at the limit and post-restante in the colony: The prison of the postcolonial nation in Jacques Audiard’s Un Prophète (2009)

This article examines incarceration and socialization as depicted in Jacques Audiard’s film Un Prophète (2009). The postcolonial prison in the centre of the nation, called ‘Centrale’, is a site where postcolonial humanism is pushed to its limit. A close reading of the film reveals currency and mobility working in tandem, as illustrated by the appearance of a 50-franc bill depicting Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Le Petit Prince in the opening and closing scenes. The main character of the film negotiates how to stay alive in prison, and how to get ahead on the outside. As insides and outsides are governed both by surveillance and the bio-political in the postcolonial nation, it becomes increasingly clear that the nation itself is its own prison.