05/05/2006

"The clash between Western civilisation and the Muslim world degrades all of us, when we could enrich each other instead, and work together". This is one of the reasons why Ismael Ferroukhi, who was born in Morocco and has been living in France since the age of three, made his first feature film, Le Grand voyage (lit. "The Long Journey").

In Rome to present the film, wanted in 2004 by French producer Humbert Balsan and winner, that same year, of the De Laurentis Award for First Film at the Venice Film Festival, Ferroukhi explained that the idea goes back to a trip his father made over 30 years ago for the traditional visit to Mecca. The film is "an ideal pretext for shutting up two diametrically opposed characters in a car and forcing them to speak. I wanted to tear down the clichés that have been created around a community that is fundamentally peaceful and tolerant".

Le Grand Voyage – co-produced by Ognon Pictures, Arte, Soread 2M, Casablanca Films, Les Films du Passage, with the participation of the CNC, the Morocco Film Centre, Fasild and Fondazione Gan – will be released in Italy on ten screens by Istituto Luce.

When we asked Istituto Luce President Luciano Sovena why the delay in distributing the film, he responded: "We had a hard time finding the cinemas that accept quality films such as this, which I, however, consider very ‘functional'. And audiences don’t respond as they should. We’ll nevertheless release the DVD very soon, thus preserving the original language version".

(Translated from Italian)