More of them durn suspect furrin movies...
Hello again, fellow couch 'taters, time-wasters and movie fans who can't even spell "pretenshus," let alone be it!
Yes, once more I have parked my fat white butt in front of the TV and found a couple of movies dealing with our fave topic after atheism - religion! In this case the Islamic religion.
Both movies are from the French-Moroccan filmmaker Ismaël Ferroukhi.
1. Free Men (Les Hommes Libres) (2011) - based on a little-known true story - how a mosque in Paris saved hundreds of Jews from the Nazis during WWII. Told mostly thru 2 stories. One of a real man, a Moroccan singer who keeps his Judaism (and his homosexuality) deeply hidden. And a fictional man, a selfish black marketeer suddenly faced with two Jewish kids whose parents have already been "transported."
The great Michael Lonsdale plays another real character, the Moroccan diplomat who risked death by giving Jews fake identity papers. (FTR, during WWII the Muslim ruler of Morocco flatly refused to turn over any Jewish citizens to the Nazis or their puppets, the Vichy government.)
2. La Grand Voyage (2004) - elderly Muslim man in France wants to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Forces his very secular and very grumpy teen son to drive him there.
The scenery alone makes this one worth watching, since they drive thru France, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The scenes filmed in Mecca during the pilgrimage are really amazing.
I think anyone who's ever been stuck with an obstinate relative on a long trip will enjoy this movie. Not that it's a comedy, but it has some funny parts. Like when the son yells at Dad: "Fuck! Doesn't your religion teach forgiveness?" (It's funny in the context of the scene, which I won't give away.)
With Mohammed Majd as the father - he has a glare that could melt the Sphinx. And Nicolas Cazale as the son, great for this part because he was raised in France but his mother is Algerian. Much like the character he's playing.
If you don't know much about Islam, you may learn a little more about it from this movie. I lived in the Middle East for about 6 years and knew real people who were like both of these guys. Some very devout, some very secular and everything in between. Just regular old humans, IOW.
It has a surprise ending I won't give away. But unlike a Hollywood movie on this theme would probably do, it happily does NOT have the son suddenly converting and spouting platitudes about the wonderfulness of religious belief.
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