Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53316 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-11
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .53" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, .25 pounds
• Running time: 108 minutes

Review
A moving character study that builds to a surprisingly wrenching finale, wrapped in a road movie that never lacks for interesting visuals. This movie is why we watch foreign films. --Eric Hanson, Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune

Review
Le Grand Voyage isn't a good movie because it has won various awards and accolades, nor is it good because it provides a distinctively different view of the Muslim community. No, it's a good movie due to the way the director provided an intelligent look at the generation gap between father and son, in a manner befitting the beliefs so often vilified by the press... Once again, Film Movement picked a winner! --Don Houston, DVD Talk

About the Actor
Nicolas Cazale: Born in Pau, France, as a youth Nicolas Cazale was an athlete and began his post-secondary studies focused on philosophy. At age eighteen, he was encouraged by a friend to attend a school play and immediately Cazale was inspired. From that day forward he decided to make acting his career. Cazale followed his heart to Paris to pursue his acting studies and soon after landed a role in the French Telefilm Fabio Montale with Alain Delon. Cazale's first leading film role was in Gael Morel's award-winning Les Chemins de Leod (2002). He also won the Shooting Star Award for Outstanding Acting at the Berlin International Film Festival for his performance in The Grocer's Son. In addition to being an actor Nicolas Cazale has directed his own short films.

Customer Reviews

Insha'Allah: The Durability of a Father/Son Relationship
LE GRAND VOYAGE is a gentle miracle of a film, a work made more profound because of its understated script by writer/director Ismaël Ferroukhi who allows the natural scenery of this 'road trip' story and the sophisticated acting of the stars Nicolas Cazalé and Mohamed Majd to carry the emotional impact of the film. Ferroukhi's vision is very capably enhanced by the cinematography of Katell Djian (a sensitive mixture of travelogue vistas of horizons and tightly photographed duets between characters) and the musical score by Fowzi Guerdjou who manages to maintain some beautiful themes throughout the film while paying homage to the many local musical variations from the numerous countries the film surveys.

Reda (Nicolas Cazalé) lives with his Muslim family in Southern France, a young student with a Western girlfriend who does not seem to be following the religious direction of his heritage. His elderly father (Mohamed Majd) has decided his time has come to make his Hadj to Mecca, and being unable to drive, requests the reluctant Reda to forsake his personal needs to drive him to his ultimate religious obligation. The two set out in a fragile automobile to travel through France, into Italy, and on through Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, and Turkey to Saudi Arabia. Along the trip Reda pleads with his father to visit some of the interesting sights, but his father remains focused on the purpose of the journey and Reda is irritably left to struggle with his father's demands. On their pilgrimage they encounter an old woman (Ghina Ognianova) who attaches herself to the two men and must eventually be deserted by Reda, a Turkish man Mustapha (Jacky Nercessian) who promises to guide the father/son duo but instead brings about a schism by getting Reda drunk in a bar and disappearing, and countless border patrol guards and custom agents who delay their progress for various reasons. Tensions between father and son mount: Reda cannot understand the importance of this pilgrimage so fraught with trials and mishaps, and the father cannot comprehend Reda's insensitivity to the father's religious beliefs and needs. At last they reach Mecca where they are surrounded by hoards of pilgrims from all around the world and the sensation of trip's significance is overwhelming to Reda. The manner in which the story comes to a close is touching and rich with meaning. It has taken a religious pilgrimage to restore the gap between youth and old age, between son and father, and between defiance and acceptance of religious values.

The visual impact of this film is extraordinary - all the more so because it feels as though the camera just 'happens' to catch the beauty of the many stopping points along the way without the need to enhance them with special effects. Nicolas Cazalé is a superb actor (be sure to see his most recent and currently showing film 'The Grocer's Son') and it is his carefully nuanced role that brings the magic to this film. Another fine film from The Film Movement, this is a tender story brilliantly told. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, September 08

The road to Mecca . . .
In this French-Moroccan road movie, a father and son travel by car from France to Saudi Arabia. For the father, it is his once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. For the teenage son, completely westernized, with a non-Muslim girlfriend and school exams to take, it is the worst possible turn of events. They quarrel much of the way or press on in bitter silence, as the road takes them through Italy, the Balkans, Turkey, Syria and Jordan. Along the way, there is trouble at border crossings and they pick up riders - not always willingly. Eventually, in a blow-up over a gift of money to a begging woman at a well in the desert, they reach a crisis that threatens to separate them.

As travelogue, the film is fascinating. European landscapes give way dramatically in Turkey to the East, with a visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and a nightclub with singing and dancing. Intensity builds as their journey converges with that of other pilgrims until they merge with the vast crowds from all over the Muslim world in Mecca. The performances are fine, as the mercurial emotions of the son drive his moods in conflicting directions and the stolid father clings stubbornly to his own determination to do it all his way. A winner at the Venice Film Festival.

Great movie..
Great movie. A bit monotonous at beginning and parts, but very deep message regarding human nature. I understand why it won so many awards at various festivals. It is a dialectic between tradition and modernity or Faith and secularism.
Nevertheless, the message remains that human nature transcends all human characters and triumphs at the end. More things unite us than divide us.