The Band's Visit

Bikur Ha-Tizmoret

France, United States, Israel

2007

87 Min

Color

1.85:1

Arabic, Hebrew, English

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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PROD Ehud Bleiberg, Koby Gal-Raday, Guy Jacoel, Eilon Rachkowsky, Yossi Uzrad

CAST Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, Khalifa Natour, Imad Jabarin, Tarak Kopty, Rubi Moskovitz, Shlomi Avraham, Uri Gavriel, Ahuva Keren, François Khell, Hisham Khoury, Rinat Matatov, Hilla Sarjon, Eyad Sheety, Tmer Yosef

Cannes (Un Certain Regard): Un Certain Regard - Jury Coup de Coeur, FIPRESCI Prize, Prix de la jeunesse, Telluride, London (Film on the Square), Transilvania (Focus Israel), Karlovy Vary (Another View), Vancouver (Cinema of Our Time), AFI FEST (World Cinema), Toronto (Contemporary World Cinema), Athens, Stockholm (Open Zone), São Paulo, Ghent (Competition): Special Mention

Synopsis

On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning’s bus, the band, lead by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them. –IMDb

Director

Eran Kolirin

Born in 1973, Eran Kolirin’s feature film debut as a director, The Band’s Visit, cast a shining light on the Israeli scriptwriter, winning him acclaim and over 50 prestigious awards around the globe, among them eight Ophir Awards of the Israeli Film Academy, the Un Certain Regard Jury Coup de Coeur Award in Cannes, and the European Film Award.

Eran’s first work for cinema was the screenplay for the film Zur – Hadassim for which he won the “Lipper Prize” for Best Script at the Jerusalem International Film Festival, 1999. In 2004, Eran Kolirin wrote and directed the TV movie )The Long Journey_. –The Match Factory