AKIPRESS.COM - Islamic world film festival in Bishkek set for October 28-30 will be opened by a documentary film Journey to Mecca, the press service of the Department of Cinematography of Kyrgyzstan reports.
The film shooting took 5 years as it had to collect nearly 85 permits from government agencies in Saudi Arabia for shooting.
The budget of the film is 13 million. The film is narrated by actor Ben Kingsley. The distribution of the film was carried out by the National Geographic Society and the world premiere was in Abu Dhabi in January 2009.
The film was shown in several states of the U.S. Approved by the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the film has attracted audiences in Kuwait, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Canada.
Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta is a dramatised documentary film charting the first real-life journey made by the Islamic scholar Ibn Battuta from his native Morocco to Mecca for the Hajj in 1325.