Customer Reviews
Le grande voyage - moving film - By: S. L. Wilkinson, 27 Oct 2008 
This wonderful, stirring film, directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi, excellently throws us into the worlds of two individuals from opposite sides of a generation - a devout Arabic-speaking father & his estranged french-speaking son during a road-trip to Mecca. Both are equally irritated by each other's beliefs & conduct; both are 'outsiders' to each other's lives - the 'old' faith versus a more modern non-practicing lifestyle: women, a non-Muslim girlfriend, booze & exam re-takes for example. At the start of their journey, the chasm between young & old seems huge & bridgless. Punctuated by their opposing issues of trust & suspicion, tolerance & impatience, love & respect, heaven & hell, we watch their father-and-son bond grow & shrink with each new turn of the map.
As their 3,000-mile journey progresses, we see their fractious relationship unfold: this is his father's (maybe last & only) pilgrimage & his son is irritated because he must drive him there when his older brother cannot fulfil his promise. As the trip progresses, it is thwart with troubles & experiences (as it is for Christianin Pilgrim's Progress perhaps). The experiences test their bond & drive them apart, unite them, separate them & unite them again. But, as they pass through each of the seven countries, they start to speak each other's language just a little bit more.
Breathtaking - By: W. Veitch, 05 Mar 2007 
In every sense of the world, Ismael Ferroukhi's Le Grand Voyage, is breathtaking. The film follows father & son, Mohamed Majd & Nicolas Cazale, on what Majd believes is his last opportunity to fulfil his Hajj. Cazale doesn't want to go, he enjoys his lifein suburban Paris with his girlfriend, has little to no interestin his religion & speaks no Arabic. His father meanwhile is devout, & speaks only Morrocan Arabic, little French. The journey, taken by car as the father believes that aside from walking or cycling, which he is too old for, brings him closer to God, is necessary beacuse he cannot drive & Cazale is the only member of his family free to take him.
It starts out as a painfully awkward roadtrip through beautiful European scenery but eventually, inevitably, the two begin to bond & by the end of the film you will be left speechless if you have any heart whatsoever.
I am not Islamic & neither are my family but watching this film became almost a spiritual journey for me as well.
Incredible.
