Le Grande Voyage is a French and Moroccan collaboration. It follows Reda, a French youth of Moroccan descent (his parents have lived there for thirty years), who is suddenly compelled to take his devoutly religious father on a road-trip. And not just any road trip – a drive from France to Mecca – in order for his father to fulfil one of the holy pillars of Islam.

The trip plays on a number of conventional dichotomies – old v. young, European v. non-European, father v. son. It is also a film that is trapped within a very familiar genre – the road movie where both parties manage to learn a little about each other, and subsequently a little bit about themselves. It is therefore of no surprise, Le Grand Voyage is highly predictable – with the ending and conflict almost totally spelt out. We know what’s going to happen to the naturalised Reda, just as much as we know what’s going to happen to the insular father. It is also quite clear on what it is saying on these dichotomies on a larger scale – simply just listen and you will see.

What Le Grande Voyage is effective at however, is capturing little bits of moods. The film is well-acted – and quite often the reasonably long takes would hint at emotions swelling underneath. There are fine bits of absurdist humour (the lamb scene in particular is well-done with an excellent little coda) and there is some touching interplay between the father and the son. The shots of Mecca are also quite remarkable. The film does manage to successfully show a side of Islam that is largely absent from most portrayals of the religion in the West – one that is peaceful, hopeful, and comforting to a large number of people around the world. While Le Grande Voyage is not particularly challenging cinema, it’s a nice wee film that manages to create a small impact in spite of its limitations.—Brannavan Gnanalingam