LE GRAND
VOYAGE
GRAND VOYAGE |
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Director:
Ismaël Ferroukhi
Screenplay: Ismaël Ferroukhi
Cast:
Réda: Nicolas Cazale
The Father: Mohamed Majd
Awards:
Award for First Feature Film, Venice Film Festival (2004)
Running time: 108'
Year of production: France - Morocco, 2004
Rating: Not rated (general public)
Gauge: 35mm, DVD (color)
Distributor: Film Movement
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“The
filmmaker masters a sense of classical narration: he has
a good grip on his story, knows how to take advantage
of a detail to reveal a situation, and skillfully plays
with the opposition between inside and outside scenes.”
Aurélien Ferencsi, Télérama |
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A few weeks
before his high school final exam, Réda, a young man
who lives in the south of France, is chosen to drive his aging
father to Mecca for the traditional pilgrimage. From the start,
the journey promises to be difficult, as Réda and his
father have nothing in common. They are separated by culture,
language and religion. Réda is a modern young man who
does not speak Arabic and cares little about his father’s
deep sense of religion. Through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria,
Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Réda and his father interact
minimally and the grandiose settings and often-desolate landscapes
reflect this uneasiness. As their journey progresses, their
adventures and misadventures bring father and son closer,
forcing mutual recognition and reconciliation. In Mecca, where
the filmmaker received rare permission to shoot, Réda’s
father disappears in the crowd of pilgrims, never to return.
In this road-movie, Ismaël Ferroukhi handles cultural
and generational differences with skill. In the director’s
efforts to “stop the clichés that are carried
around about a community that is deeply pacifist and peaceful”.
the film challenges preconceived ideas about Islam.
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| PHOTO Film
Movement |
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