There are rare filmmakers who set their works like touchstones. Khaled Ghorbal is one of them. This Franco-Tunisian director began as an actor before leading a theatre troupe in Tunisia. He later turned to cinema in France, where he managed art-house cinemas for ten years. His first short film, El Mokhtar (The Chosen One), 1996, reflects his concern with fanaticism through a relentless fictional narrative. He moved to feature films with Fatma, 2002, denouncing the hypocrisy that hinders women's rights in Tunisia. His heroine, abused in childhood, questions her relationship by revealing she had bought her virginity back through surgery. The subject is provocative, but the film’s refined style balances it. Then Khaled Ghorbal polished Un si beau voyage (Such a Beautiful Journey), 2008.
The story is linear, unfolding over two periods and two continents. We discover Mohamed in Paris, a retired Tunisian worker living in a migrant residence in the suburbs. Quiet and weary, “Momo” has befriended two neighbors, also immigrants from Africa. He no longer sees the Spanish woman he once tried to build a life with. His days are spent shopping, drawing, and walking along the Seine. When he's forced to leave his room and his doctor suggests he face his illness under the Tunisian sun, Momo decides to return. He embarks on a true initiatory journey that leads him to his family, and then to the desert.
Such a Beautiful Journey stands as the portrait of a Maghrebi man in exile, returning inward. "He lives with dignity, the best he can. Humble, but also clear-eyed and proud, he knows he’s out of sync," comments Khaled Ghorbal. "Exiled in France, a beloved country, he also feels exiled in Tunisia, the land of his flesh, which he left long ago — and now, exiled in his own body, worn out and failing." As the filmmaker accompanies his protagonist’s long path, he captures his emotions intimately. "To retrace this man’s journey, to portray his solitude, I chose to follow the rhythm of his inner world, to be in tune with his fate," explains Ghorbal, who keeps his character at the center of both close and wide shots.
The figure of Momo is strikingly embodied by actor Farid Chopel, who passed away after filming. It’s hard to recognize the lanky comedian known for his absurd humor on French stages in this aged man. The Algerian-descended actor wasn’t known for subtlety, especially in comedies like The Vengeance of the Feathered Serpent (1984) or Bags of Knots (1985). After stepping away from screens for health reasons, Farid Chopel returned here in what feels like a swan song. “As filming progressed, especially in the second part in Tunisia, he became increasingly isolated, as if he were merging with the character, Momo, who withdrew more and more from life,” reveals the director.
The fusion between actor and role gives this film about loss and stripping-down a deep meaning. The cinematography by Jacques Besse — known for his work with Abderrahmane Sissako — emphasizes the vibrancy of cities and the depth of the desert. Médéric Collignon’s jazzy music echoes the joys and sorrows along the way. Such a Beautiful Journey unfolds at a slow, inevitable pace. Despite some superfluous scenes and a somewhat heavy-handed ending, it draws in available viewers toward spaces of rupture, open to universal horizons. As the Franco-Tunisian director says: "Such a Beautiful Journey is not merely the ordinary story of a migrant worker, but rather a fable about exile and solitude — a tribute to all those who live 'beside' their homes, and often beside themselves, out of sync."
