Le Grand Voyage

“4 Stars! Remarkable…The characters are compelling and completely realistic, the acting is first-rate, and many scenes… are breathtaking.” The San Francisco Chronicle

“3 ½ Stars… A moving character study that builds to a surprisingly wrenching finale… This movie is why we watch foreign films!” Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune Le Grand Voyage

Winner, De Laurentiis Award, Best First Film, 2004 Venice Film Festival Winner, Golden Astor for Best Film, 2005 Mar del Plata Film Festival Official Selection, 2005 New Directors/New Films, Museum of Modern Art Opening Film, 2004 Dubai Film Fest Winner, Bayard d'Or for Best Film, 2004 Festival de Namur

Writer/Director: Ismaël Ferroukhi Producer: Humbert Balsan Cast: Nicolas Cazale, Mohamed Majd France/Morocco, 2004/108 Min/1:85/Dolby SRD

DISTRIBUTED BY FILM MOVEMENT Contact: Josh Levin 375 West Broadway 2nd floor NY, NY 10012 t: (212) 941-7744 x. 213 f. (212) 941-7812 [email protected] www.filmmovement.com Short Synopsis: 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.

San Francisco Chronicle

FILM CLIPS Jonathan Curiel Friday, May 20, 2005

'Le Grand Voyage'

(Four stars) Drama. Starring Nicolas Cazale and Mohamed Majd. Directed and written by Ismael Ferroukhi. (In French and Arabic with English subtitles. Not rated. 108 minutes. At the Roxie.) In this remarkable directorial debut, the stern father of a Muslim family in France has his teenage son drive him to Mecca for the religious pilgrimage known as the hajj. The son, who is irreligious and has a non-Muslim girlfriend, doesn't relate to his traditionalist father, nor does the dad relate to his son -- a culture clash (and generational clash) that is the spine of their entire trip to Saudi Arabia. "Le Grand Voyage" is a typical road movie in that the central characters meet memorable strangers along the way -- people like an old, mysterious woman who insists on getting a ride with them, and a sly-talking man who helps them at a Bulgaria-Turkey border crossing. These chance meetings add intrigue to "Le Grand Voyage," but they also accentuate the differences between father and offspring. For example, the son (Nicolas Cazale, an Algerian-French actor- comic) is happy to get drunk with the man from the border, who assures him (using a Sufi aphorism) that it's OK for Muslims to consume alcohol. "Don't believe anything he says," warns the father, (Mohamed Majd, a Moroccan actor). Made by Ismael Ferroukhi, who's a Moroccan-born director, "Le Grand Voyage" is an elliptical film that leaves out extraneous dialogue and details. In one scene, father discovers son with a belly dancer at a hotel; dad storms off, with son beside him apologizing and asking, "Don't you practice forgiveness in your religion?" The line is perfect -- a reminder of the gulf between the leather jacket-wearing Reda and his immigrant father. Majd's character never answers Reda, and the next scene has both men atop a sand dune, closer than ever to their destination of Mecca. Their characters are compelling and completely realistic, the acting is first-rate, and many scenes in this black-and-white movie (which was shot in different countries, including Saudi Arabia) are breathtaking. "Le Grand Voyage" is undoubtedly one of the few features to film its central characters in Mecca, in the middle of a hajj. Ferroukhi has said his movie is "spiritual rather than religious or political. ... I wanted to make a film that was universal and accessible to everyone. ... It's a tribute to my parents and the 97 percent of Muslims that we never hear about in the Western world." However one interprets "Le Grand Voyage," the impression it leaves is unmistakable.

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PRODUCTION NOTES:

Presented in 2004 at the Mostra of Venice in the Lion du Futur section, Le Grand Voyage won the “Luigi de Laurentiis” prize for best first film. It is the first feature length film by Ismael Ferrouhki, who received high regards for his short films: L’Expose premiered at Cannes in 1993 as well as L’ Inconnu with Catherine Deneuve and Miki Manojlovic. He has also co-written the screenplay for Cedric Kahn’s first film Trop de bonheur (1994) as well as his last, Culpabiltie zero.

Statement of the Intentions of the Filmmaker Reda and his father belong to a culture where the dialogue between father and son is difficult, even impossible. The gulf which separates them (generation, culture, language) is made deeper by their status as “exiles” in France. I made this film to imagine this contact that traveling together makes inevitable. They are removed from their status as father and son and experience an evolution through the voyage. Le Grand Voyage shows us how Reda and his father move from a relationship marked with indifference and hostility to one of recognition of the other that leads to reconciliation. It is necessary for one to accept one’s parent –where we come from -- in order to accept one’s self.

The Genesis of the Project Le Grand Voyage originates from a personal memory of the director. “I have had this project in mind for a dozen years,” explains Ferroukhi. “It turns out that when I was a kid my father would take this voyage in a car and this crazy trip made me fantasize. I said to myself that one day I would have to tell the story of this crazy adventure.” Born in the Moroccan city of Kenitra, the director told the story of a young child who had to report on his country of origin in his short film “L’Expose” (1992). Another Vision of Islam If Le Grand Voyage deals with a relationship between a father and his son, the director equally deals with ideas concerning Islam. “I wished to tell a human story about to Muslim protagonists in order to stop conveying stereotypes about a fundamentally peaceful and tolerant community", He underlines, “I really wanted to re-humanize a community with the reputation sullied by an extreme minority which uses the religion for political ends.” Nicolas Cazalé confides on this subject: "I felt an extraordinary energy and a love, as if one really heard the heartbeat of Islam. It was understood that this religion is made of love and attention to others. I am glad to have made this film because it gives an image of the Islam which has nothing to do with the image given to us in the media."

Casting While Ismael Ferroukhi was writing the script, Cedric Kahn mentioned the name of Nicolas Cazale for the role of Reda. Kahn passed him Cazale’s auditon tape for Roberto Succo, a role that eventually went to Stefano Cassetti. Ferroukhi saw this audition and was set on the actor. Five years went by before the making of the film but the director stuck to his initial idea. He originally looked in France for an actor to play the role of the father, but it was in Marocco that he met Mohamed Majd.

The Voyages of Comedians Of Franco-Algerian origin, comedian Nicolas Cazale was very well regarded in Gael Morel’s Les Chemins de L’Oeud: in it he incarnated a young man left in Kabylie to find his grandfather, played by... Mohamed Majd, his father in Le Grand Voyage. In addition he already turned in a Moroccan road-movie evoking the relationship between two men of different generation: The Horse of Wind of Daoud Aoulad Syad (2002).

The Cinema of Mecca Isamael Ferrouhki shot part of his film at Mecca, which was not without difficulty: “In addition to that we shot during the pilgrimage! It was extremely complicated because the authorization that we had from the Saudi Embassy did not have much value at the site… the local authorities were used to television crews who shot for short periods of time within standardized plans, not film crews who need to film the same scene three times.” Outside of Mecca, Ismael Ferroukhi’s road movie was filmed in several sensitive territories, as the director confides: “In Serbia, for example, we had to respect the curfew that followed the assassination of the Prime Minister. In the Middle East, the war in Iraq was starting… and again in Turkey we had a lot of trouble obtaining authorization to film in the Blue Mosque or at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey. I really got the impression that we were walking in a mine field but that did nothing but reinforce our determination.”

Locations, Locations Le Grand Voyage feels authentic because it is authentic, with scenes shot on locations including Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France; Meyrargues, Bouches-du- Rhône, France; Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey; Bulgaria; Morocco; as well as Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Produced By Humbert Balsan Before Le Grand Voyage, the producer Humbert Balsan had already financed a number of premier French films très remarqués, among them, L' Amour by Philippe Faucon, Y aura-t-il de la neige à Noël ? by Sandrine Veysset, Grand Bonheur by Herve Le Roux and also Quand la mer monte by Yolande Moreau by Gilles Porte.

Reviews (French Press): Rolling Stone L'Humanité Aden Ciné Live Zurban TéléCinéObs MCinéma.com Ouest France Télérama Le Monde

Review Quotes (translated from French):

Rolling Stone – Isablle Danel 4 stars Just and touching inhabited by energetic actors, Le Grand Voyage does not follow the exact path that we await. This is a very important film.

Humanity – Jean Roi 4 stars In every dialectical point this Grand Voyage road movie moves us much more than we could travel. It permits us to travel across sumptuous landscapes, situations and encounters that reinvigorate questions of origins, language, cultures and openness. We discover among the diversity a Mecca as we have never seen it. An excellent surprise.

Aden – Philippe Piazzo 4 stars The simplicity of the film becomes its strength. The film ends by tearing away and staying far away from conventions, it comes to the heart of the matter by leaving it to the wind to trace a new invisible route.

Zurban – Olivier Pelisson 4 stars A humanist portrait transcended by the benevolence of the director and two intense actors.

MCinéma.com - Hugo de Saint Phalle 3 stars The voyage of Reda and his father is beautiful. Ouest France - La Rédaction 3 stars Using an economy of means, Ismael Ferroukhi, for whom this is his first film, propels his story with measured emotions and difficult sensations. A beautiful tour of a country of tolerance, openness and exchange.

Télérama - Aurélien Ferenczi 3 stars Impressive scenes and premier story to take on Mecca alone. The director possesses a real classical sense of narration. The exchange between Reda and his father is unique.

Le Monde - Jean-Luc Douin 3 stars Le Grande Voyage is has both a social dimension and a family dimension. It highlights characters who humanize the Muslim community, challenging a view encouraged by a minority who use the religion for political ends. U.S. Reviews

Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 2005 Le Grand Voyage ***½ An elderly, traditional Moroccan father, having lived for decades in France, undertakes a pilgrimage to Mecca with his estranged, irreligious, French-born son in this debut feature by director Ismael Ferroukhi. The premise has loads of potential for overmilked sentiment but Ferroukhi shows restraint and lets the evolving father-son relationship speak for itself -- and with very little verbiage, actually -- through the understated performances of Mohammed Majid and Nicolas Cazale. 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

LE GRAND VOYAGE March 25, 2005

An elderly French-Moroccan patriarch, determined to make the obligatory hajj to Mecca, commands his teenage son, Reda, to drive him from France to Saudi Arabia. The ensuing cross-continental journey, a more single-minded version of the one in A Talking Picture, contains plenty of educational asides, all directed at poor, callow Reda—every squabble results in the Westernized lad learning that his pious dad is maybe not just a religious nut job. Ismaël Ferroukhi's fest favorite is predictable and cozily feel-good, but the final scenes, shot amid a throng of Mecca pilgrims, have a near hallucinatory charge. A Film Movement release. DENNIS LIM

Minneapolis City Pages, April 2005 Le Grand Voyage

In this gentle road movie, a French Moroccan teenager (Nicolas Cazalé) is forced to drive his dad (Mohamed Majd) across Europe and the Middle East for the hajj, the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. The film's warm humor derives from the old man's obstinacy (he tosses his son's cell phone in a roadside trashcan) and the son's exasperated response to it. But the characters also represent the two poles of the European Muslim diaspora--the devout and tradition-bound versus the modern and secular. The movie is canny enough not to pick sides: By the time they reach Mecca, the kid's hip modernity has begun to look like a callow pose, and the old man's stubbornness has come to seem quietly heroic. (Peter Ritter)