Le Grand Voyage: Film Review
2007-03-04 02:30 PM | Posted by Tejvan Pettinger | Permanent Link | good films
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Le Grand Voyage
Le grand Voyage is an interesting and thought provoking tale of an elderly devout Muslim making a pilgrimage to Mecca. To get to Mecca the elderly Father requires his youngest son, to drive him. Reda agrees only reluctantly, and this is only due to a sense of filial responsibility. There is a sharp divide between the two both in terms of age and outlook on life. Reda is secular a non-practising Muslim and frequently regrets having to drive his father some 3000 miles to Mecca. There is at times a painful separation between the two, as each struggles to reconcile their very different aspirations.
Yet at the same time the epic journey across Europe provides an opportunity for each, in particular Reda, to consider new thoughts and ideas.
The scenery is stunning and you get a real sense of travelling across the varied terrain and culture of Europe. For a film about Islam it is refreshing that there are no political overtones, it is simply about the relationship between a devout father and secularised son. The scenes in Mecca are visually powerful and give a real sense that the journey is a pilgrimage.
Quite often the relationship between the two is so strained it becomes painful, but at the same time they do meet various people along the way who provide another angle and perspective.
It is no action movie, even the conversation at times is limited, but it remains an engrossing film with an emotional intensity and interesting perception
Quotes from Le Grand Voyage
Reda: Where is my cell-phone?
The Father: It's in a garbage can 200 miles away.
Reda: Why didn't you fly to Mecca? It's a lot simpler.
The Father: When the waters of the ocean rise to the heavens, they lose their bitterness to become pure again...
Reda: What?
The Father: The ocean waters evaporate as they rise to the clouds. And as they evaporate they become fresh. That's why it's better to go on your pilgrimage on foot than on horseback, better on horseback than by car, better by car than by boat, better by boat than by plane.
Reda: Don’t they practise forgiveness in your religion?
Le Grand Voyage movie review at BBC.
