Le Grand Voyage

I am very fond of this movie! I just share this article...but I just copied ...

This film tells about father and son. Réda is a French-Moroccan teenager due to sit for Baccalauréat. When his devout father asks Réda to accompany him on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he reluctantly agrees. However, the father insists that they travel by car. As both embark on a road trip thousands of kilometers away from southern France, the once-icy father-and-son relationship starts to thaw as both gradually come to know each other.

Along the way, the two meet several interesting characters. The son learns about Islam and why his father thought it would be preferable to make the pilgrimage by car rather than by airplane.

The route taken by the father and son goes from France through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan before reaching Saudi Arabia. According to the Internet Movie Database, the film was actually shot in some of these countries, namely France, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Most scenes that were set in the middle east were shot in Morocco. However, some scenes involving the two principal actors were actually shot in Mecca. While the Saudi Arabian government had previously permitted documentary crews to shoot in Mecca, this was the first fiction feature permitted to shoot during the Hajj. The film's director, Ismael Ferroukhi, said that while shooting in Mecca, "no one looked at the camera; people didn't even seem to see the crew - they're in another world."

Whatever….but what is interesting to me is how the relationship between father and son.

Directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi
Produced by Humbert Balsan
Written by Ismaël Ferroukhi
Starring Nicolas Cazalé,
Mohamed Majd
Distributed by Pyramide Distribution
Release date(s) September 7, 2004
Running time 108 min
Language Moroccan Arabic, French

Cast
Nicolas Cazalé – Réda
Mohamed Majd – The Father
Jacky Nercessian – Mustapha
Ghina Ognianova – The old woman
Kamel Belghazi – Khalid
Atik Mohamed – Le pélerin Ahmad