The Band's Visit
Screening: Monday 16 February 2009
Israel/France/USA 2007.Director: Eran Kolirin.
Starring: Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri.
Subtitles.
Certificate: 12A. 87 minutes.
Synopsis
Resplendent in their powder blue uniforms, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt to perform at the opening of an Arab cultural centre.When they discover that there is no delegation to meet them at the airport, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva, the tired musicians inadvertently climb on board the wrong bus and arrive instead at the remote and sleepy town of Beit Hatikva.
Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, lead by the officious Tawfiq Zacharaya, is offered a lifeline by worldly café owner Dina who offers to put them up for the night. The embarrassed and awkward band members do their best to get on with the town’s inhabitants in their own way, helped by Dina who eventually succeeds to make even their strait-laced captain relax a little.
During a quietly eventful night, the Egyptian police officers and their Israeli hosts find that beneath their political and cultural differences they are simply people sharing the same joys and sadness as human beings anywhere. A funny and touching film about real people that proves common humanity is greater than any political enmity.
The Band’s Visit was to be Israel’s candidate for the Foreign Film category at the Oscars but had to be withdrawn as too much of the dialogue is in English. Nevertheless, it can count the Jury Coup de Coeur at Cannes 2007, plus a Best Actor prize for Sasson Gabai (Tawfiq) at the European Film Awards among its 32 international awards.
