Dir.
Ismael Ferroukhi, France/Morocco, 2004, 108 mins, subtitles
Cast:
Nicolas Cazale, Mohamed Majd, Jacky Nercessian, Ghia Ognianova
The feature debut of director Ismael Ferroukhi arrives on our screens via a host of international film festivals, having been officially selected for Critics Week at Venice 2004 and winner of the Luigi de Laurentis Award for Best First Film.
What is most impressive about this film is that it is the first ever to be allowed to be shot at Mecca, and the scenes featuring the millions - yes, millions - of worshippers are truly awe-inspiring.
Considered by many as a Muslim road-movie, that description - though apt - is somewhat limiting. Le Grand Voyage is a tale of old and new, ancient and modern, and about bridging those gaps. In it we meet Reda (Cazale), a 17-year-old French-Moroccan. Although he has been raised within a muslim family, his interests lie with passing his exams and his French girlfriend. The last thing he wants is to join his elderly father (Majd) on a three thousand mile pilgrimage to Mecca to make the Hajj (the religious pilgrimage) before he dies. However, when his elder brother is found guilty of drink driving and loses his licence this is exactly what the reluctant Reda is forced to do.
Le Grand Voyage is certainly a road movie, but metaphorically as well as physically. As we are invited to comprehend the differences and similarities between father and son, between one way of life and another, so too can we turn to ourselves. In a political world that on one hand calls for religious tolerance between East and West and yet seems to be demarcating into 'us and them' with the other, it is down to films such as this to promote a respect for the values and beliefs of others, whilst underpinning the basic message that underneath human nature is essentially the same. Reda and his father at first find it hard to communicate, their silences loud and telling. Father demands respect and understanding from his son, but Reda doesn't feel he extends the same to him - especially when his father disposes of his mobile phone in a rather undignified way - is this not a universal story?
However, as they travel across Europe, through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Jordan to Saudi Arabia, they encounter a host of people's - all different - and from whom Reda is able to learn from in a variety of different ways. Gradually, in enforced company, in their battered old peugeot, father and son come to know each other and to accept their differences and realise their similarities. What metaphor is at work here, I wonder?
Although Ferroukhi manages to avoid sentimentality as a director, the subject matter itself is touching enough and should strike a chord with audiences. The performances of the two leads are immensely powerful, occasionally painful in their accuracy, and often poignantly funny. Most of all, this is a very relevant and human film, one which has a lot to say. Personally, this reviewer is hardly the most political or radical of scribes but it certainly set me thinking. Art sometimes isn't for arts sake, it can also inform. This film may not change the world, or even your life - but then again, who knows - it might light the spark that just might.
Jean Lynch
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