Le grand voyage

France, Morocco, Bulgaria, Turkey

2004

108 Min

Color

1.85:1

Arabic, Bulgarian, English, Italian, Turkish, French, Serbo-Croatian

Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
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CAST Nicolas Cazalé, Mohamed Majd, Jacky Nercessian, Ghina Ognianova, Kamel Belghazi, Atik Mohamed, Malika Mesrar El Hadaoui, François Baroni, Roxane Mesquida

SOUND Moustapha Delleci, Xavier Griette, Marie-Christine Ratel

Venice (Critics' Week): Luigi De Laurentiis Award, Toronto (Planet Africa), Rotterdam (Time & Tide), Mar del Plata (International Competition): Best Film, Best Actor, Karlovy Vary (Another View), São Paulo, Göteborg

Synopsis

A few weeks before his college entrance exams, Reda (Nicolas Cazale), a young man who lives in the south of France, finds himself obligated to drive his father to Mecca. From the start, the journey looks to be difficult: Reda and his father (Mohamed Majd) have nothing in common. The wide cultural and generational gap between the two is worsened by the lack of communication between the two. Reda finds it hard to accommodate his father, who demands respect for himself and his pilgrimage.

From France, through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan to Saudi Arabia , the two will embark on a road trip to Mecca that will change their lives. —Film Movement

Director

Ismaël Ferroukhi

Ismael Ferroukhi was born in Kenitra, Morocco. After directing his first short film, L’Exposé, which premiered at Cannes in 1993, Ferroukhi co-wrote the script for Cédric Kahn’s feature film Trop de Bonheur (1994). In 1995, Ferroukhi wrote and directed the short film L’Inconnu, and went on to direct two films for television––Akim (1997) and Petit Ben (1998). Le Grand Voyage (2004) is his first feature-length film. —Africultures

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Invagination

31Mar13

Follows some traditional tropes of American and European road movies. Contains some first overhead shots of Mecca that are truly breathtaking.

eric

6Nov11

Ralph Waldo Emerson's oft-quoted maxim "Life is a journey, not a destination" aptly describes this film about a father's wish to make the hajj to Mecca by car from southern France. This simple story amplifies the differences between a traditional Muslim father with his younger restless son on a road trip wonderfully shot on location across Mediterranean Europe towards Saudi Araba. En route there's closure at the end.

galen

15Jun11

Seeing this at a young age, the ending sparked the realisation of how powerful cinema can be. Perhaps I wouldn't appreciate it quite as much if I'd seen it recently, but it's still in my mind.