A few weeks before his college entrance exams, Reda, a young Moroccan living in southern France, suddenly has to drive his father to Mecca. From the onset, the journey is marred with difficulties: Reda and his father have nothing in common. They belong to a culture where communication between father and son is difficult, if not impossible. The gulf of generation, culture and language between them is even wider due to their status as “exiles” in France. Forced into cohabitation from which there is no escape, traveling 3000 miles through grandiose settings in Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, full of uncertainties and unexpected events, they not only lose their bearings but also their reticence towards each other. They are forced to look at themselves and each other, gradually shedding their roles as father and son and growing closer as their journey proceeds. This a coming of age and a road movie rolled into one, where religion, culture and globalization all come under the spotlight.
|
