Saturday, November 5, 2005 9:00 am - Camelot Theatres Doors Open (Complimentary Coffee & Pastries) 9:20 am - Introduction of the Film 9:30 a.m. - Screening Begins Q&A Session follows the Screening Free to DFS 2005 Members with current Membership Card Guests & Non-Members pay $15.00 per person at the door

Synopsis: A few weeks before his high school final exam, Réda, a young man who lives in the south of France, is chosen to drive his aging father to Mecca for the traditional pilgrimage. From the start, the journey promises to be difficult, as Réda and his father have nothing in common. They are separated by culture, language and religion. Réda is a modern young man who does not speak Arabic and cares little about his father’s deep sense of religion. Through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Réda and his father interact minimally and the grandiose settings and often-desolate landscapes reflect this uneasiness. As their journey progresses, their adventures and misadventures bring father and son closer, forcing mutual recognition and reconciliation. In Mecca, where the filmmaker received rare permission to shoot, Réda’s father disappears in the crowd of pilgrims. In this road-movie, Ismaël Ferroukhi handles cultural and generational differences with skill. In the director’s efforts to “stop the clichés that are carried around about a community that is deeply pacifist and peaceful”. the film challenges preconceived ideas about Islam. Written/Directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi Cast:  Nicolas Cazalé ....  Reda Mohamed Majd ....  The Father Jacky Nercessian ....  Mustapha Ghina Ognianova ....  La vieille femme Kamel Belghazi ....  Khalid Atik Mohamed ....  Le pélerin Ahmad Malika Mesrar El Hadaoui ....  La mère LANGUAGE:  French/Arabic/English/Italian/Turkish - With English Sub-Titles RUNNING TIME:  108 MINUTES Director's Note: Reda and his father belong to a culture where communication between father and son is difficult, if not impossible. The gulf between them (generation, culture, language) is even wider because of their status as “exiles” in France. I made this film to imagine this contact that travelling together makes inevitable. Reda and his father are shut up in a car in a forced cohabitation from which there is no possible escape, travelling through grandiose settings full of uncertainty and unexpected events, where they lose their bearings. Thus, they are forced to look at themselves, gradually shedding their roles as father and son and growing closer as their journey proceeds. Their conversation is reduced to the strict minimum, but it is through their silences that Reda and his father communicate the most. In the course of their journey and the people they meet, they come to understand what separates them but also what brings them together. Le Grand Voyage dramatizes how Reda and his father move from a relationship of indifference and hostility to one of mutual recognition and reconciliation. Ismaël FERROUKHI