Journey to Mecca (2009)

One of the greatest travellers in human history, twenty-one-year-old law student Ibn Battutah set out alone to Mecca from Tangiers in 1325 and returned to Morocco almost thirty years later.... See full summary »

Director:

Bruce Neibaur

Writers:

Carl Knutson, Bruce Neibaur

Stars:

Chems-Eddine Zinoune, Hassam Ghancy, Essam Edriss

2 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Chems-Eddine Zinoune	...	Ibn Battutah
Hassam Ghancy	...	Highwayman
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Essam Edriss	...	Hamza (voice)
Nabil Elouahabi	...	Hamza
Ben Kingsley	...	Narrator
Nadim Sawalha	...	Ibn Mustapha

Storyline

One of the greatest travellers in human history, twenty-one-year-old law student Ibn Battutah set out alone to Mecca from Tangiers in 1325 and returned to Morocco almost thirty years later. This is the story of his first pilgrimage, book-ended with never-before seen documentary footage of the contemporary Hajj. Filmed for initial presentation in IMAX and other giant screen cinemas.

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Plot Keywords:

arab | arabic history | islam | 14th century | 1300s | 

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Genres:

Drama | History

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User Reviews

Using Ibn Battuta's name to sell soft-core documentary

Disappointing. Really. From all the interesting, adventurous and cool things that happened in Ibn Batutta's life none were used. An average person will have a distorted view of Ibn Batutta. If I hadn't read his Book I would too. I feel that the creators of this movie cleverly used his name to sell a documentary on Hajj. Even there too - Hajj is just sloppily touched on and the movie abruptly ends. There is no real in-sight into how Muslims used to live or how Ibn Batutta lived - you go in knowing nothing and come out knowing less. I hear that a lot of 'research' was done but apart from the footage of the Ka'ba (which you just need permission and a camera for) I don't see any of it. There was so many obvious glitches (like every man in the Great Caravan having mustaches instead of beards and the women walking around with their hair loose under small scarves - clearly extras from the eastern film industry and in no way properly portraying the style of Muslims couple of hundred years ago.)Anything you saw in a Moroccan film you'll see here.I don't know what research these creators are talking about. From a plot point of view this movie was bland. We see Zinoune travel through the boring, empty,dry desert most of the time. There was no real substance or story-line. I was expecting more considering how exciting the trailer and synopsis were made out to be. The only good thing is that Muslims aren't portrayed as mass-murderers and the Hajj has accurate details (we'll pretend we never saw everyone coming up from Sijda without the Imaam saying 'Allaah-hu-Akbar'). In short - a highly-pumped, overrated, pointless movie with no idea what it wants to be or where its going. A loose cannon. I can't believe that we're supposed to believe that they actually did research about Ibn Batutta, ancient Arabia or Hajj. You'd have to know absolutely nothing about Islaam to watch this film - if that's you, then go for it, but if you know even a little bit - take a pass. Read his book; it was way better.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English Arabic

Release Date:

7 January 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Journey to Mecca

Filming Locations:

Morocco

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$13,488

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desert Door Productions, Cosmic Picture, Dounia Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.44 : 1