It is one of those poetic wonders of cinema that often it’s the smaller canvases that do the best to explore life’s bigger questions – questions that force the audience to keep thinking well after the credits have finished rolling.

As prison dramas go, one immediately sees why Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet has garnered so much praise, not to mention a flurry of prizes, since it hit the big screen in 2009.

Julian takes purposeful strides through the street. He is desperate to reach Anika’s house so that he can see her and, more importantly, speak to her uncle. Evening has fallen and the pavement glitters with frost, creating a fine cushion that crackles beneath his trainers. His walk soon breaks into a run and his breaths become sharp, forming cloudy bursts that reveal the chill in the night air.