The eight members of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, looking resplendent in their powder blue uniforms and standing at attention in perfect symmetry, await a welcoming committee in an Israeli airport. Of course, it never shows.
So begins “The Band’s Visit” (“Bikkur HaTizmoret”), the funny, poignant debut feature film of Israeli writer/director Eran Kolirin. The film opens at the Downer Theatre on Friday, March 14.
The band, which was invited to help inaugurate a new Arab cultural center, is led by the starchy, unsmiling Tewfiq (Sasson Gabbai).
He instructs Khaled (Saleh Bakri), the young, Chet Baker-loving Romeo of the group to get directions to their destination town. Too busy flirting with the attractive woman at the help desk, Khaled receives directions to the wrong town.
So the eight Egyptians find themselves standing literally in the middle of the Israeli desert — a study in contrast, a veritable sea of otherness in an unwelcome territory.
Dressed to the nines with their luggage and instruments in tow, the men might as well have been beamed there by a space ship. This is just the first of several examples of opposites clashing, parrying and attracting in this sparse, dry, beautiful film.
Tired and hungry, the octet stumble upon a small café where they learn that not only is there no Arab culture center in this town, there is “no culture at all,” says café owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz). Dina feeds the band and offers her apartment to Tewfiq and Khaled to stay the night. The rest of the band lodges elsewhere.
Thankful for the diversion from her boring life, Dina invites Tewfiq to a local restaurant for some food and drink. Khaled, meanwhile, talks his way into being the fifth wheel on a double date with some younger folk.
Tewfiq is infused with a world-weary melancholy by Israeli film veteran Gabbai. A widower who has lost his son and may soon find himself unemployed due to budget cuts, Tewfiq doesn’t say much.
But Dina’s openness and sensuality prod him to open a bit.
She asks him why a police force needs an orchestra, anyway. That’s like asking a man why he needs his soul, responds Tewfiq.
Though “Visit” is not the first film to illustrate that music is a universal language and a great unifier of cultures, Kolirin shows us that silence can also be a transcendent form of communication. Simple looks and hand gestures can express gratitude, loneliness or contempt better than words ever could.
In one enduring scene at a roller disco, Khaled teaches a shy Israeli how to court the ladies without a single word.
Art and controversy
“The Band’s Visit” is a thoroughly satisfying film. As for the culture clash, the film hints at possibilities without being preachy and, more importantly, does not devolve into a gooey, why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along love fest. It is also a testament to the need for art in modern life.
In spite of its cross-cultural message, the film became the source of some controversy.
Though it did very well on the film festival circuit, including winning the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, not all festivals welcomed it with open arms.
After initially inviting the film to participate in the first Middle Eastern International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the festival rescinded its invitation.
According to Variety, the film was barred from the festival because Egypt’s Actors Union threatened to boycott if “Visit” was allowed to be screened.
Kolirin also entered the film into the Cairo Film Festival, but was denied for political reasons. Though Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty over thirty years ago, Egypt forbids measures that would “normalize” relations between the neighboring countries.
There is an intimate scene between an Egyptian and an Israeli, which was thought to have riled the Egyptians, but apparently the fact that it is an Israeli film was enough.
“[W]e would like to present it to Arab countries, because it is for hope, because there’s a different way that people can have relationships,” Ehud Bleiberg, one of the film’s producers told indieWire. “This is the whole purpose of the film, so people can talk.”
Visit’ won eight Ophirs (Israel’s Academy Awards): best full-length feature, director, actor, actress, supporting actor, screenplay, costumes and music.
It would have certainly been Israel’s entry for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Best Foreign Language Film, but it was deemed ineligible because it includes too much English.
After “The Band’s Visit” was denied, Israel entered “Beaufort,” which was the Jewish State’s first nominated film. The Austrian, Jewish themed “Counterfeiters” won the award.
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