| The Band's Visit- Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (original) | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Eran Kolirin |
| Produced by | Ehud Bleiberg Koby Gal-Raday Guy Jacoel Eylon Ratzkovsky Yossi Uzrad |
| Written by | Eran Kolirin |
| Starring | Saleh Bakri Ronit Elkabetz Sasson Gabai Uri Gavriel |
| Music by | Habib Shadah |
| Cinematography | Shai Goldman |
| Editing by | Arik Leibovitch |
| Distributed by | Sony Classics |
| Release date(s) | 19 May 2007 |
| Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | Israel/France/United States |
| Language | Arabic, English, Hebrew |
| Box office | $14,555,884 (world)[1] |
The Band's Visit (Hebrew: ביקור התזמורת - Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) is an acclaimed 2007 Israeli film directed by Eran Kolirin.
The Band's Visit 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.[2] Thus, Israel sent Beaufort instead; Beaufort was finally included in the five final nominees.[3] 'Band's Visit' won eight Israeli Ophir Prizes awarded by the Israeli Film Academy.[4]
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The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, consisting of eight men, arrive in Israel from Egypt. They have been booked by an Arab cultural center in Petah Tiqva, but through a miscommunication (Arabic has no "p" sound, and regularly replaces it with "b"), the band takes a bus to Bet Hatikva, a fictional town in the middle of the Negev Desert.[5] There is no transportation out of the city 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. That night challenges all of the characters.[6]
Sasson Gabai's characterization and playing of Tawfiq Zacharya was hailed by the critics, who described him as "an actor of real skill, and an artist capable of the deepest understanding of the human condition."[7] During the Israeli Film Academy Awards Ceremony in September 2007, Saleh Bakri, "the band's handsome young trumpet player"[8] 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 in the movie, critics described Ronit Elkabetz as "wonderful...a kind-hearted lonely heart refusing to wilt in her desert town".[9] 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."[3]
The Band's Visit was well received by critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 98% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 108 reviews, and gave it a golden tomato for best foreign film of 2008.[10]
Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter named the film the second best of 2007, [11] V.A. Musetto of the New York Post named it the 8th best film of 2007, [11] and both Ella Taylor of LA Weekly [11] and Associated Press film critic David Germain named it the 9th best film of 2007. [12] Roger Ebert included it on his list of 20 best films of the 2008.
According to Roger 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."[13]
The skating rink scene is considered a highlight of the film:[14] "The band's handsome young trumpet player, Haled, who idolizes jazz icon Chet Baker, encounters the resident Papi (Shlomi Avraham), an Israeli nebbish and accompanies him on a blind date at a roller-skating rink. When the local boy proves too awkward to make any advances to his date, the more experienced Egyptian guides him along, wordlessly, but with eloquent gestures."[8]
Under the rules of the American Academy, more than half the dialogue in a foreign film entry must be in the originating country's own language. However, The Band's Visit, whose Egyptian and Israeli characters communicate mainly in broken English, didn't meet the requirement and was disqualified by the Oscar committee. Even so, Sony Pictures, the film's distributor, entered it in the general Oscar categories of best picture, director, screenplay, actor and actress—none of which came through for the film.
"Nobody in Israel thought about the language problem," said Kolirin, who spent four years making the film. When he heard about the adverse American decision, "I was pissed off for a few days, but I've gotten over it," he said during a visit to Los Angeles.[15]
19 May 2007 (Cannes)
13 September 2007
18 November 2007 (St. Louis International Film Festival)
9 September 2007 (Toronto Film Festival)
Wins
Nominations
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