Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (2007)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Eran Kolirin

Writer:

Eran Kolirin (writer)

Release Date:

13 September 2007 (Israel)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Music

Tagline:

Once-not long ago-a small Egyptian police band arrived in Israel. Not many remember this...It wasn't that important.

Plot:

A band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town.

Plot Keywords:

Israel | Orchestra | Lost | Bus | Musical Instrument

Awards:

40 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

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

Also Known As:

La visite de la fanfare (France)
The Band's Visit (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

Israel | France | USA

Language:

English | Arabic | Hebrew

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Canada:PG | South Korea:12 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Germany:o.Al. | France:U | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:S | Hong Kong:IIA | Ireland:12A | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | New Zealand:M | Iceland:L | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Yeruham, Negev Desert, Israel

Company:

July August Productions

Trivia:

The movie was selected to be Israel's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of The 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008) (TV), but it was disqualified by AMPAS because more than 50% of the film's dialogue was found to be in English, as opposed to Arabic and Hebrew. After an unsuccessful appeal, Israel sent Beaufort (2007) instead.

Goofs:

Continuity: When speaking in Arabic, Tawfiq pronounces some words with the Egyptian Arabic pronunciation, and some words with the Palestinian Arabic pronunciation. Being an Egyptian, he should talk in Egyptian Arabic dialect all the time.

Movie Connections:

Features Ha-Shoter Azulai (1970)

Soundtrack:

Summertime

Small but wise

A fully uniformed Egyptian police band arrives in Israel to perform at the opening ceremony of a new Arab Cultural Center but no one shows up to meet them at the airport. Lonely and tired, they end up taking the wrong bus, ending up in Bet Hatikvah, a lonely outpost in the Negev that, according to one of its residents, not only doesn't have a cultural center but has no culture. Unable to get transportation until the next morning, the band agrees to stay overnight at a local restaurant run by Dina (Ronit Elkabetz), a free-spirited but lonely Israeli restaurateur who longs for companionship.

Eran Kolirin's A Band's Visit is the story of the small connections that bring people together. Israeli's submission as Best Foreign Film at the Oscars (rejected because much of its dialog is in English), it is about what some of us have lost in modern society – the ability to reach across cultural, political, and language barriers to connect with fellow human beings. Over the course of the evening, the Israelis and the Egyptians approach each other tentatively and little by little, the staid Egyptians open up to their Israeli hosts, finding some common ground exemplified in a spontaneous dinner table rendition of George Gershwin's "Summertime".

When the two groups begin to get to know each other, they find that beneath the language and cultural differences, they are simply people - full of joy and sadness, friendship and loneliness, connection and loss. Tewfiq (Sasson Gabal), the conductor of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, is formal and rigid in his demeanor but is able to strike up a friendship with Dina (Ronit Elkabetz). After some awkward silences, the melancholy conductor reveals details of tragic losses in his family and how he feels that he is to blame. Another band member, Khaled (Saleh Bakri) decides to accompany local Papi (Shlomi Avraham) and his date to a roller skating rink. In a memorable scene, Khaled offers the socially backward Papi some instructions on courting his shy girl friend.

In another moving sequence, band member Simon (Kalifa Natour) plays a lovely but unfinished composition for the clarinet for Itzik (Rubi Moscovich) who tells him that he should end the piece, not with a traditional showy display but with what is there for him at the moment, "not sad, not happy, a small room, a lamp, a bed, a child sleeping, and tons of loneliness." A Band's Visit is a film about Israeli's and Arabs but without the usual backdrop of boundary disputes, the peace process, or the religious divide, even avoiding the clichés about how music is a universal language. It is a small film but wise in its understated depiction of humanity's common bonds, slow-paced but held together with a sensitive charm.