Biyografi Dünyası
Büyük Yolculuk

Le Grand Voyage

Movie · 2004 · 7 people

Written and directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi as his first feature, Le Grand Voyage (The Great Journey) dates from 2004 and mixes road movie with drama. A co-production of Morocco, France and Bulgaria, it follows a father and son on a pilgrimage made by car,, set against the gap between two generations. It was shown at the 2004 Toronto and Venice film festivals and won the Golden Astor for Best Film at the 2005 Mar del Plata International Film Festival. In Turkey it opened on 3 March 2006 as Büyük Yolculuk.

Réda is a young man of Moroccan descent raised in France, trying to live free of his family's traditions and religion. He is not close to his devout father. The father wants to travel to Mecca and asks his son to go with him. He hates leaving his girlfriend and his routine behind, but cannot refuse. The pair must cover the road together, from Europe via the Balkans, Syria and Jordan to Saudi Arabia. Nicolas Cazalé plays Réda, Mohamed Majd the father and Jacky Nercessian is Mustapha. Roxane Mesquida and Kamel Belghazi also appear.

Ferroukhi wrote the script in 1998, but raising the money took about ten years. Humbert Balsan produced, Katell Djian shot it and Fowsi Guerdjou composed the score. Dialogue moves between French and Maghrebi Arabic.

DirectorIsmaël Ferroukhi

Reactions

You can pick up to 3 reactions.

Cast

Only cast members with a profile on this site are listed.

Jacky Nercessian Jacky Nercessian Actor · 75 years old Nihat Nikerel Nihat Nikerel Actor · died at 59 Nicolas Cazalé Mohamed Majd Kiril Kavadarkov Roxane Mesquida Kamel Belghazi

More from this director

Through different eyes

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The film turns the generation gap between a young man of immigrant background raised in Europe and his devout father into a road story. Réda, who wants to live free of his family's traditions, being stuck in the same car as his father turns a rift common in immigrant families into an unavoidable confrontation. The route from Europe through the Balkans, Syria and Jordan to Saudi Arabia stretches the distance between two generations across a map. Dialogue that moves between French and Maghrebi Arabic shows that the rift is lived in language too. Turkish viewers, especially those familiar with immigrant families in Europe, will find a familiar story here.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Ismaël Ferroukhi's debut fuses the road movie with generational conflict and makes smart use of the genre's strongest tool: shutting two characters in a small car and forcing them to face each other. That the script was written in 1998 and waited about ten years for funding gives the sense of a project that matured patiently. Screenings in Venice and Toronto and the Golden Astor at Mar del Plata reward that care. To my mind, though, the road-movie template brings its own limits: it is not hard to guess where the tension between father and son is heading, and at times the film gives in to the genre's predictability. Even so, its spare, unshowy telling keeps it a step ahead of the formula.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

A calm, thoughtful film about the gap between a father and his son. It is a story adults and teenagers can watch together and then talk about the generation gap, tradition and understanding one another. For young children, though, grown-up problems spread over a long journey may feel dull. Best suited to teenagers and adults.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

Reviews (0)

Log in Log in to write a review.

Comments