“Never
trust your cellmate — he may be
far
more dangerous than you think,
as a man imprisoned for robbing banks
discovers to his cost in the terrific,
rapid-paced non-stop action French
thriller The Prey...”
WHILE SERVING A SENTENCE for a bank robbery he committed to finance the specialist
care of his adored daughter Amélie (a charming debut by Jaïa Castagirone), tough-guy
Franck Adrien (Albert Dupontel: Avenue Montaigne; A Very Long Engagement)
shares a cell with the seemingly mild-mannered Jean-Louis Maurel (Stéphane Debac:
The Happening).
Maurel is accused of molesting a young teenager, but he insists he is innocent.
At first, Franck doesn't want to have anything to do with him; but when Maurel
is attacked by two sadistic prisoners while the guards deliberately turn a blind
eye, he intervenes and rescues his cellmate. For his pains, he is given extra
months on his sentence.
“A
terrific, rapid-paced, non-stop action French thriller...”
Franck
is under pressure from both his wife Anna (Caterina Murino: Casino Royale),
who is desperately short of money, and his brutal partner-in-crime Jérôme Norvick
(Olivier Schneider: Unknown), who is in the same prison and wants Franck
to reveal where he has hidden the cash.
Following a vicious attack by Novick, Franck regains consciousness in the prison
hospital to find Maurel at his bedside. He shows concern for the man who saved
him from the other prisoners... But does he have an ulterior motive? When the
young girl he was accused of molesting withdraws her claim and he is released,
Maurel gives Franck his telephone number.
Believing Maurel to be a victim of injustice, Franck asks him to visit Anna
to assure her he is okay and gives him a message for her containing a clue to
the whereabouts of the money he has stolen. Big mistake.
During a visit from Manuel Carrega (Sergi Lopez: Leaving), a former captain
in the Gendarmerie, a horrified Franck begins to suspect that Maurel is a very
clever manipulator and a serial killer who has tricked him into revealing the
whereabouts of the money and putting his wife and his child in danger.
Maurel uses everything Franck told him against him and ingeniously begins to
piece together a trail of evidence that frames Franck for a series of murders.
Taking a further attack on him as an opportunity to escape, Franck goes on the
run, racing across France to find Maurel and prevent him striking again. But
will he be in time to save his wife and daughter? And will he be able to outwit
and outrun top detective Claire Linné (Alice Taglioni: The Valet), who
is now hot on his trail, and prove his own innocence?
Franck is to find that Jean-Louis Maurel and his wife Christine (Natacha Regnier)
are anything but an average, innocent couple. And as a frantic manhunt in the
mountains and forests of Eastern France gets underway, at every turn the hunter
is less than one step away from becoming the hunted. In this perfectly-paced
French thriller bursting with acting talent, the going is hard, the guys tough
and a key player is a kick-ass female cop.
The Prey also features: Claire Bouanich as Melissa; Jean-Marie Winling
as Robert Pascaud; Yves Vernoeven as Brice; Lucien Jean-Baptiste; Serge Hazanavicius;
Zindin Souale.
Screenplay is by Laurent Turner and Luc Bossi; Produced by Luc Bossi; Directed
by Eric Valette (State Affairs; One Missed Call).
• A tense, fast-moving thriller, The Prey
is out to own on DVD and EST on 23 July 2012. Certificate: 15 | Feature Running
Time: 100 Minutes Approximately | French Language with English Subtitles | Catalogue
Number: OPTD2483 | RRP: £17.99.
"The Prey… [a] terrific, rapid-paced, non-stop action French thriller"
—
Maggie Woods, MotorBar
“Never
trust your cellmate — he may