Award-winning Film, Journey To Mecca: In The Footsteps Of Ibn Battuta, Playing At Navy Pier Imax®

Oct. 7, 2010 - PRLog -- CHICAGO, IL – Cinematic phenomenon, Journey to Mecca, is playing in Chicago’s Navy Pier.

Journey to Mecca tells the story of Ibn Battuta (played by Chems Eddine Zinoun), a young scholar who leaves Tangier in 1325 on an epic and perilous journey, traveling alone from his home in Morocco to reach Mecca, some 3,000 miles to the east.

Ibn Battuta is besieged by countless obstacles as he makes his way across the North African desert to Mecca. Along the route he meets an unlikely stranger, the Highwayman (played by Hassam Ghancy) who becomes his paid protector and eventual friend. During his travels he is attacked by bandits, dehydrated by thirst, rescued by Bedouins, and forced to retrace his route by a war-locked Red Sea.

Ibn Battuta finally joins the legendary Damascus Caravan with thousands of pilgrims bound for Mecca for the final leg of what would become his 5,000 mile, 18 month long journey to Mecca.

The New York Times calls this film a “superhuman effort”. The Toronto Star raves, “Journey to Mecca will join the list of popular IMAX classics.”

Narrated by Ben Kingsley, we are taken along on Ibn Battuta’s journey  as he arrives in Mecca, transformed. We then experience the Hajj as he did over 700 years ago, and, in recognition of its timelessness, we dissolve to the Hajj as it is still performed today, by millions of pilgrims, in some of the most extraordinary and moving IMAX® footage ever presented. Ibn Battuta would become one of the greatest travellers of all time, travelling three times further than Marco Polo.

For more information about the film, including its official trailer, visit www.journeytomeccagiantscreen.com. For tickets, visit www.imax.com/chicago.

To arrange interviews or for press inquiries, contact:

Lorna London                  
Director of Public Relations            
SK Films Inc.                  
jtm@skfilms.ca

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SK Films is a Toronto based film and television company and an international leader in the worldwide Giant Screen/IMAX® film industry.