Un Si Beau Voyage by Khaled Ghorbal

Mohamed’s journey is clear to the audience within the first half hour of the movie. But from then on, Khaled Ghorbal puts aside all of his interest in the theme of immigration and follows his protagonist with a pitiful eye. Unmarried, without a home, dying: it seems that the only way the movie finds to portray Mohamed is by feeling sorry for him.

Unfortunately, other aspects of that could have provided another dimension also fail: Farid Chopel, the main actor, has the same doleful expression during the whole movie; the soundtrack, by Médéric Collingon, only underlines the sadness of what we are seeing.

It begins with the strength to deal with a lively issue that is being passionately discussed all over the world. But unfortunately Un Si Beau Voyage ends as a one-note movie which underlines the idea that a character who suffers is only worthy of pity. And that is a shame.

Joao Candido Zacharias