La route inconnue

It was the second time Leon Poirier had made a movie about Charles de Foucauld ,the military man who had been inspired and ended his life an hermit in the desert .In 1936 "L'Appel Du Silence" dealt with the whole life of the figure ,his wild years during which he was a womanizer ,then the silence of the desert where his spiritual conscience awoke.

That time,Poirier focused on the "road to Damascus" (the unknown road);it begins with his resignation as an officer and carries on with his discovery of the desert ,of other religions and the call of faith. First ,Foucault was a geographer ,eager to explore Morroco .Dressed up as a Jew ("I'm no Jew,I'm no Muslim,I'm no Christian as you mean it"),he set off on a perilous journey .At the beginning of his odyssey,he is still proud of his European nation: "their weapons can blow all your cities down" "their iron horse runs faster than any of your camels or other beasts" "They are the masters".But the Muslims answer :"can these masters prevent death from coming? the sun from rising or going down?"

In the silence of the desert ,estranged from his "masters" compatriots ,having seen the three religions and met people from these denominations,Foucault found God in the sands and in the oasis.The last picture is a picture of Christ (the Holy Shroud).His death is not shown as it was in the first version