Le Grand Voyage
7.6 /10 1 Votes
83% Rotten Tomatoes Director Ismael Ferroukhi Music director Fowzi Guerdjou Duration | 7.3/10 IMDb 3.6/5 AlloCine Genre Drama Screenplay Ismael Ferroukhi Writer Ismael Ferroukhi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Language Moroccan ArabicFrench Release date September 7, 2004 (2004-09-07) Cast Similar movies The Last Witch Hunter , Fish Tank , Factory Girl , The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things , At the Edge of the Abyss , Jupiter Ascending | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Le grand voyage
A middle-aged man of Moroccan descent (Mohamed Majd) embarks on a long journey from southern France to Mecca but for this crusade, he unexpectedly asks his son, Reda (Nicolas Cazale), to go with him. Reda, a thoroughly Westernized teenager, is taken aback by the request, and even more surprised when his father says they will be traveling by car. Given their different cultures, the pairs relationship starts off cold and distant, but the ice starts to thaw as they get to know each other.
Contents
Le Grand Voyage is a 2004 film written and directed by Ismael Ferroukhi. The film portrays the relationship between father and son as both embark on a religious pilgrimage trip by car. It was shown at the 2004 Toronto and Venice International Film Festivals.
Reda, summoned to accompany his father on a pilgrimage to Mecca, complies reluctantly - as he preparing for his baccalaureat and, even more important, has a secret love relationship. The trip across Europe in a broken-down car is also the departure of his father: upon arrival in Mecca, both Reda and his father are not the characters they were at the start of the movie. Avoiding the hackneyed theme of the return to the homeland, the film uses the departure to renew a connection between two generation.
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Plot
Reda (Nicolas Cazale) is a French-Moroccan teenager due to sit for Baccalaureat. When his devout father (played by Mohamed Majd) asks Reda to accompany him on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he reluctantly agrees. However, the father insists that they travel by car. As both embark on a road trip thousands of kilometres away from southern France, the once-icy father-and-son relationship starts to thaw as both gradually come to know each other. Reda speaks only in French to his father, who is seen speaking only Arabic for the majority of the film. Later, when necessary, the father proves that he in fact speaks impeccable French; his choice to speak only Arabic to his son is therefore purposeful.
Along the way, the two meet several interesting characters. The son learns about Islam and why his father thought it would be preferable to make the pilgrimage by car rather than by plane.
After all their hardships, they reached Mecca but the father died soon after.
The route taken by the father and son goes from Provence, France through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan before reaching Saudi Arabia.
Cast
Similar Movies
Water Lilies (2007). Nicolas Cazale appears in The Big Journey and 3 Dancing Slaves. Lacombe - Lucien (1974). Land of Plenty (2004). Standing Tall (2015).
Production
Most scenes that were set in the Middle East were shot in Morocco. However, some scenes involving the two principal actors were shot in Mecca. While the Saudi Arabian government had previously permitted documentary crews to shoot in Mecca, this was the first fiction feature permitted to shoot during the Hajj. The films director, Ismael Ferroukhi, said that while shooting in Mecca, "no one looked at the camera; people didnt even seem to see the crew – theyre in another world."
References
Le Grand Voyage WikipediaLe Grand Voyage IMDbLe Grand Voyage Rotten TomatoesLe Grand Voyage AlloCineLe Grand Voyage themoviedb.org