Good intentions have a way of leading to not-so-great places in “Paradise at Mother’s Feet,” a sweet but ultimately arduous road movie about a mother and son from Kyrgyzstan who set out to reach Mecca in the mother’s final days. When scripture insists that salvation lies in making the pilgrimage on foot, the steps Ruslan Akun’s religious drama take toward the promised land feel increasingly labored over a two-and-a-half-hour runtime, wearing out any early charm derived from a strong central relationship between its stars Emil Esenaliev and Anarkul Nazarkulova.

Esenaliev embodies Adil, an intellectually disabled 35-year-old who still plays with children two decades younger than him in a village that may lie far beyond the city but isn’t immune from larger cultural attitudes about the mentally challenged. His mother Rayhan (Nazarkulova) has done her best to give him a full life within their small community, but...