The Band's Visit

''The Band's Visit'' ( he, ביקור התזמורת, Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) is a 2007 comedy-drama film, directed and written by Eran Kolirin, and starring Saleh Bakri, Ronit Elkabetz, Sasson Gabai and Uri Gavriel. It is an international co-production between Israel, France and the United States.

The film received acclaim from critics and audiences. It won eight Ophir Prizes awarded by the Israeli Film Academy. It was Israel's original Foreign Language Film submission for the 80th Academy Awards, but was rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences because it contained over 50% English dialogue. Thus, Israel sent '' Beaufort'' instead; ''Beaufort'' was eventually included in the five final nominees.

Synopsis

The eight men of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrive in Israel from Egypt. They have been booked by an Arab cultural center in Petah Tikva, but through a miscommunication (Arabic has no "p" sound, and regularly replaces it with "b"), the band takes a bus to ''Beit Hatikva'', a fictional town in the middle of the Negev Desert.

The Egyptians encounter a few Israeli townspeople, who respond with curiosity about the band, are variously friendly and wary, and provide them with shelter, food, music and companionship during their visit. There is no transportation out of the town that day, and there are no hotels for them to spend the night in.

The band members dine at a small restaurant where the owner, Dina ( Ronit Elkabetz) invites them to stay the night at her apartment, at her friends' apartment, and in the restaurant. No one quite falls in love, but a sense of unspoken longing and loneliness is expressed.

Cast

* Saleh Bakri as Khaled
* Ronit Elkabetz as Dina
* Sasson Gabai as Lieutenant-colonel Tawfiq Zacharya
* Uri Gavriel as Avrum
* Khalifa Natour as Simon
* Rubi Moskovitz as Itzik
* Imad Jabarin as Major-general Camal Abdel Azim
* Hilla Sarjon as Iris
* Shlomi Avraham as Papi
* Tarak Kopty as Iman
* Rinat Matatov as Yula
* Tomer Yosef as Ars
* Ahuva Keren as Lea
* François Khell as Makram
* Hisham Khoury as Fauzi

Release

Critical reception

''The Band's Visit'' received critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 98% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 116 reviews with an average of 7.9/10. The site's consensus states: "''The Band's Visit'' is both a clever, subtle, slice-of-life comedy, and poignant cross-cultural exploration." It also received a Golden Tomato for Best Foreign Film of 2008. On Metacritic, it has an 80 out of 100 rating, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ray Bennett of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' named the film the second best of 2007, V.A. Musetto of the ''New York Post'' named it the 8th best film of 2007, and both Ella Taylor of '' LA Weekly'' and Associated Press film critic David Germain named it the 9th best film of 2007.

Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' selected it as one of the 20 best films of 2008. According to Ebert, "''The Band’s Visit'' has not provided any of the narrative payoffs we might have expected, but has provided something more valuable: An interlude involving two 'enemies,' Arabs and Israelis, that shows them both as only ordinary people with ordinary hopes, lives, and disappointments. It has also shown us two souls with rare beauty."

Gabai's characterization and playing of Tawfiq Zacharya was hailed by critics, who described him as "an actor of real skill, and an artist capable of the deepest understanding of the human condition." During the Israeli Film Academy Awards in September 2007, Bakri, "the band's handsome young trumpet player" thanked his parents and said, "I want to thank my father, who taught me to love mankind, and my mother, who taught me to bear the burden of life in this country and stand strong," he said.

For her role, critics described Elkabetz as "wonderful ... a kind-hearted lonely heart refusing to wilt in her desert town". During the Israeli Film Academy Awards Ceremony in September 2007, Elkabetz brought a message of reconciliation and hope, and after taking a bow before the film's director, she said to him, "You reminded us of a thing or two that we have already managed to forget. You showed us what would happen if we would stand before each other, Jews and Arabs and look each other in the eye."

The skating rink scene is considered a highlight of the film: "The band's handsome young trumpet player, Khaled, who idolizes jazz icon Chet Baker, encounters the resident Papi ( Shlomi Avraham, ), an Israeli nebbish