In May 2014, we reported that the long-awaited animated adaptation of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet — produced by Salma Hayek and directed by Roger Allers — would preview at the Cannes Film Festival. We revisit that announcement here, with the full story of what followed.
Kahlil Gibran Collective · Originally published 9 May 2014
Salma Hayek and the crew of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet at Cannes, May 2014.
When we first published this post in May 2014, we were announcing something that Gibran readers had quietly longed for across many decades: that The Prophet — one of the most beloved and widely read books of the twentieth century — was finally coming to the screen. The news was that Participant Media and the Doha Film Institute's animated adaptation would preview at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival on the 17th of May, not in competition, but as a highly anticipated special screening.
It had been a dream long in the making. Salma Hayek — herself of Lebanese descent and a passionate advocate for Gibran's work — had championed the project as producer, enlisting Roger Allers, co-director of The Lion King, to write and direct the film. The result was an anthology feature unlike anything previously attempted: nine of the world's leading independent animators, each given a chapter of The Prophet to interpret in their own signature style, threaded together by a narrative framing story set in a fictional Mediterranean seaside village.
A still from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014).
The voice cast assembled for the film was remarkable: Liam Neeson as the poet Mustafa, Salma Hayek as Kamila, Quvenzhané Wallis as the free-spirited young Almitra, alongside John Krasinski, Frank Langella, and Alfred Molina. The animation segments were entrusted to an extraordinary roll-call of independent filmmakers — among them Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues), Bill Plympton, Joan C. Gratz, Joann Sfar, and Mohammed Saeed Harib — each bringing a radically different visual language to Gibran's words. Music was composed and performed by Damien Rice, Glen Hansard, Gabriel Yared, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Imagery from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014).
After its Cannes preview, the film went on to make its full world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, before receiving a US theatrical release on 7 August 2015 through GKIDS. Critics received it warmly, with particular praise for the animated segments — each of which was judged to honour the spirit and beauty of Gibran's original text while giving it vivid new form. The Rotten Tomatoes critics' consensus described it as "a thrillingly lovely adaptation of the classic text."
Official poster — Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014).
For those who have not yet seen it, the film remains available to stream and purchase through major platforms. It is a work of genuine beauty — and a fitting tribute to the poet whose words, as Mary Haskell once wrote, "generations will not exhaust."
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