| The Band's Visit | 
 enlarge | Actors: Ahuva Keren, Ronit Elkabetz, Sasson Gabai, Khalifa Natour, Eyad Sheety
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $28.96
Buy Used: $8.75
You Save: $20.21 (70%)
New (43) Used (21) from $8.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 5007
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: Hebrew (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 87
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: COLD23873D
UPC: 043396238732
EAN: 0043396238732
ASIN: B0013HL6ES
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: July 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Can movies change the world? In a word, no. But Israeli writer and director Eran Kolirin's utterly charming and engaging The Band's Visit suggests that if we could somehow put aside the politics and the religion, stifle the governments and the rhetoric, and mix in a little Gershwin, maybe even people with a history of cross-cultural suspicion and hostility really can get along. Not that the film has such pretensions--far from it. This is a simple tale involving a group of Egyptian musicians, the Alexandria Police Ceremonial Orchestra, who arrive in Israel for a concert. Things don't go well; there's no one to meet them at the airport, and they mistakenly end up in a small, drab desert town called Bet Hatikva, a place whose own residents refer to it as "bloody nowhere." But the people, especially cafe owner Dina (a marvelous performance by Ronit Elkabetz), are friendly and welcoming, and when they urge the band members to stay overnight before heading to their proper destination the next day, strait-laced leader Tewfiq (Sasson Gabai) finally relents. What follows is a series of plain but lovely scenes, as the Egyptians and Israelis (speaking English, their common language) tentatively search for common ground. Khaled (Saleh Bakri), the ladies man of the group ("Do you like Chet Baker?" is his favorite pick-up line), accompanies two young couples to a roller rink, where he comically helps the painfully timid Papi (Shlomi Avraham) connect with his date; meanwhile, the dignified but taciturn Tewfiq gradually warms to Dina's manifest charms, and the other musicians share a rousing chorus of "Summertime" with their Israeli hosts. The Band's Visit is filled with moments of humor, tenderness, tension, sadness, regret, and, as one character puts it, "tons of loneliness," every one of them delivered without the slightest bit of pretension or manipulation (not to mention political or religious overtones). And when, at the end, we finally hear the Orchestra perform, we only wish we could spend more time with all of these delightful characters. --Sam Graham
Stills from The Band's Visit (click for larger image)
Product Description
This heartwarming and poignant winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard prize is the mesmerizing and witty story of strangers in a strange land. A fading Egyptian police band arrives in Israel to play at the Arab Cultural Center. When they take the wrong bus, the band members find themselves in a desolate Israeli village. With no other option than to spend the night with the local townspeople, the two distinctly different cultures realize the universal bonds of love, music and life. Set against a breathtaking desert landscape, this cross-cultural comedy proves that getting lost is sometimes the best way to find yourself.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
I liked it... December 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this movie. My family hated it. I thought it was quirky and fun and a pleasure to go along for the ride. The different personalities of the band members and the small townspeople were universally recognizable. Very human. I really liked it. Not for everyone.
 Reflection on humanity December 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the best foreign films I have seen recently is "The Band's Visit". Story about the City of Alexandria (Egypt) Police Department music band that plays traditional Arabic music. When this group of musicians is invited to come to Israel in the local Arabic Cultural Center to perform, they find themselves on a wrong bus and in the wrong village. Stranded in the city with limited resources and no translators, the band is left to their own devices for food, and overnight sleep. This is where the hearwarming part of the movie starts. Locals unaccustomed to any visitors, open their hearts and homes to these strangers. Simple show of kindness such as giving them food and a bed to sleep opens up everyone involved in the deeper reflection about their own lives, their purpose, about the art and about meaning of family and community. One cannot help but laugh about universal domestic bickering; understanding about strain unemployment brings to a young family; heartbreak about loneliness and despair; universal need for love and understanding. You will be rewarded by a beautiful traditional arabic musical piece at the end that will be a crown jewel of this wonderful little film.
Uplifting Tale of Humanity December 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a beautiful film leaving the viewer uplifted, and with a renewed sense of hope. An Egyptian Police Ceremonial Band, played mostly by Palestinian actors, ends up in the wrong town on their way to an Arab cultural center opening. As they emerge from the bus, they are in a remote Israeli town, with no bus out until the next morning, no hotel in town, presumably no other Arabs in town, and essentially no money.
The band is led by a very stiff "General" who is now forced to depend upon the kindness of strangers in looking after his charges, until the next bus out of town the next day.
Although it could have been a mindless comedy, the film takes a very serious approach to character development and depicting the interaction of the two cultures, resulting in many intensely humorous moments.
All the main characters are touched by the meeting of these two cultures and groups of peoples, and changed by it in positive ways.
The movie's humanity and love characterize it, and give us all hope for greater interaction between Arabs and Israelis along a similar vein, allowing such a recipe to emerge again, and again.
Bravo!
A charming Middle-Eastern art film November 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"The Band's Visit" is a charming, gentle, low-key art film telling the tale of a touring Egyptian police band that finds itself stranded in a podunk town in the Israeli desert. Short on cash and having missed the last bus of the days, the forlorn Egyptians are forced to rely on the kindness of strangers -- in this case, the same Israelis who they have recently been at war with. But the Israelis are every bit as forlorn as the Egyptians -- everybody's a little bit broken inside, struggling with the same little lonelinesses and discarded hopes. The two groups don't entirely bridge their cultural gap, but they come pretty close. This is a very deliberate, quiet film -- some may find the pacing a bit glacial, but it certainly pays of in the end. Definitely worth checking out! (Joe Sixpack, Slipcue film reviews)
Lost in the desert November 29, 2008
The Band's Visit (2007) aka Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (2007), the directorial debut of Erin Kolirin, is the winner of three 2007 Cannes Festival's awards and 8 Awards of Israeli Academy of Film. Even though its subject, the relations between Jews and Arabs, is complex and controversial, the movie is gentle, sweet, hopeful, optimistic, a little sad, and well worth of seeing. The movie tells about the Egyptian policemen-musicians, the members of the Alexandria Police Ceremonial Orchestra and how they arrived to Israel one day to play at the opening of the Arab Cultural Center in Pet Hatikvah. Somehow, no one met them at the airport, and they took the bus that got them to the small town or rather village of Bet Hatikvah, in the middle of nowhere, or to be precise, somewhere in Negev desert. The musicians with their instruments wearing sky-blue uniforms stuck in Bet Hatikvah for the night because the right bus only comes once a day. How Egyptians and Jews communicate during that night, how they impact one another, what they learn about complete strangers and about themselves - makes the simple but very real and very hopeful story. The film is minimalistic, it does not use special effects or many words but it managed to tell us something important about these people by looking closely at their faces, observing their body language, sympathizing with them. You know, it is so good to see or a chance a movie with no villains, chases, guns, predictable situations, obligatory affairs, etc. It is really nice to be able to get drawn inside the movie, to feel like you've met good friends, not perfect or heroic, sometimes shy and awkward, but real and interesting to us. Two main characters as played by very good Israeli actors who are terrific in their riles and I'd love to see them getting international acclaim. Ronit Elkabeth is stunning - I could not take off my eyes off her face. Intense, passionate, sexy, three times winner of Israel Academy awards for acting, actress/director/writer, she is a national treasure. Sasson Gabai, who is apparently famous in Israel but not outside the country, was also outstanding as the repressed and shy leader of the band, Lieutenant-colonel Tawfiq Zacharya. With the running time only 87 minutes, The Band's Visit is one of the best and most memorable films from last year.
4.5/5
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