Le Grand Voyage (2004)

Cautiously Recommended

France/Morocco

Feature Film

Original Title: Le grand voyage

Writer/Director: Ismaël Ferroukhi

Cinematographer: Katell Djian

Composer: Fowzi Guerdjou

Cast: Nicolas Cazalé, Mohamed Majd, Jacky Nercessian

An ageing Moroccan immigrant, who has lived in France for thirty years, decides that now may be his last chance to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, and enlists his thoroughly French, non-believing son to make the 3000 mile drive with him, in Ferroukhi’s gentle road movie, which manages – despite having a disappointingly cloying score and a few clichéd moments – to be, ultimately, really quite moving. Iain.Stott