Movie Review: Le Grand Voyage

After his older brother has his driving licence taken away, it falls upon the younger teenaged son Reda (Nicolas Cazalé), to drive his aging father to Mecca. Reda has his own life and is not a staunch believer like his older generations, his growing up in France has calmed his religious beliefs, and he is at a crucial time of his own modern life. His college exams are pending and his heart is in a flutter with his non-Muslim girlfriend, so what is he to do ? His family seem rigid and unsympathetic to his own problems, he must follow what his family declares. Leaving home at the start of their trek not many words are spoken. They seem very much from different worlds rather than being only a generation apart. Neither knows the other and both show the same tight-lipped determination in their own stubbornness. The father (Mohamed Majd) dictates when and where they must stop and rest, he is taking his position as the head of the family and as navigator despite being hardly able to read. Reda constantly bumps heads with this patriarch ruling, seeing it as something archaic and blinkered.

The two almost have a small scale war of minds with each other along the way, both suffering from impatience of different types, challenging each others beliefs and almost causing the other to leave. Incidents too, make things more uncomfortable during the travels, like Reda’s cell phone going deliberately amiss, his photo of his girlfriend Lisa disappearing, and money too is misplaced. They even pick up the odd passenger along the way including a sheep destined for the dinner plate. Despite 'Le Grand Voyage' being about a pilgrimage to Mecca for an aging man, something according to Muslim beliefs that every man should do at one point in his life, religion is not the main focus of the story. This is about people, about a father and son, about being different, about viewing the world with different eyes and the misunderstandings they have with each other and their own beliefs. In some ways this resembles the scenario of Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 classic ‘Wild Strawberries’, in that is it part-taking of the journey that will eventually open up their minds and their hearts to each other. Ismael Ferroukhi’s generational tale is a wonderful example of a simple story well told and he extracts two very endearing and believable performances out of his mains. The use of the landscapes throughout their travels is shot and framed to perfection, acting as a balance to the small claustrophobic interior of the car, which is were the majority of the movie unfolds. The movie runs at under 100 minutes, and runs along at a brisk pace despite the action being more emotional than that of the big bang variety. Time now for the down side, the movie would have scored higher if more attention were paid to the irritating subtitling, these, while on light backgrounds frequently disappeared which deterred from the enjoyment of this engaging story.