| The Band's Visit | 
 enlarge | List Price: $28.96
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 17 reviews)
Sales Rank: 733
Category: DVD
Actors: Ahuva Keren, Ronit Elkabetz, Sasson Gabai, Khalifa Natour, Eyad Sheety
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Studio: Sony Pictures
Brand: Sony
Label: Sony Pictures
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: Arabic (Original Language), English (Original Language), Hebrew (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 87 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 23873
UPC: 043396238732
EAN: 0043396238732
ASIN: B0013HL6ES
Release Date: July 29, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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.
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)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 from egypt to israel and beyond September 4, 2008
The case for this DVD advertises that this movie has earned over thirty-five international awards. In my mind it has earned every one of them. Pitched as a comedy, the film moves beyond mere laughs to that deeply human place in each one of us, no matter what your language or culture. Eight members of the "Alexandrian Police Ceremonial Orchestra" from Egypt, complete in their powder blue band uniforms, are on a visit to the Arab cultural center in Pet Hatikvah, Israel. A bad bus ride strands them in the isolated and desolate village of Bet Hatikva. In their broken English, members of the band and their Israeli hosts communicate across the boundaries of language, culture, gender roles, and, of course, millennia of mutual suspicions. But with the help of music and the vulnerabilities they experience because of their predicament, they open themselves up to each others' stories. One reviewer described this film as "lighthearted but not lightweight." In English, Hebrew, and Arabic, with English subtitles.
 "The Band's Visit" is The Best Movie I Own September 1, 2008
No point in repeating all said in the Amazon editorial review, so how can I get you to buy this film and share it with all your friends, family, neighbors, strangers, and government? Well, the script is a masterpiece: not only for what is said, but what is unsaid. The acting is magnificent: you see and feel the joy, sorrow, anxiety, loneliness, melancholy, satisfaction, mistrust, respect. The cinematography is extraordinary: a thread of beautiful still photographs, seamlessly stitched to form a beautiful tapestry. While we may be culturally diverse, have different religious beliefs, or none at all, speak different languages, harbor ancient distrusts, we are in fact human, and must exercise the right to act humanely. No film I know says this quite so clearly, or beautifully. The winner of 35 international film awards, The Band's Visit is The Best Movie I own.
a funny, sweet film that you probably haven't seen (but will enjoy) August 26, 2008
An Egyptian police band flies to Israel to play a concert but takes the wrong bus and ends up stranded in a tiny Israeli hamlet. They get to know a number of the locals, and the interactions run the gamut: painfully (hilariously) awkward, funny, sad.
The interactions between locals are as likely to be awkward (and funny) as those between locals and the visitors, just in more familiar ways. Maybe the film is about how emotions can cross cultures (even cultures known to have animosity), but I just found it funny and sweet and (sometimes) sad. But it is very well done, and I recommend it. (My wife and I both gave it an 8/10, which is strong praise.)
The film is in English, Hebrew, and (presumably) Egyptian Arabic. We picked it up at our local Blockbuster.
The film is PG-13. I remember one swear word and one split-second glimpse of a couple of arms and legs (which could be interpreted as sensuality).
A very nice "small story" (some spoilers inside) August 17, 2008
This is one of those small, understated, quaint, slow, nice but not earth-shattering movies that are the antithesis of Hollywood and are instead relatively common in Europe and Asia. If you are into movies with a "plot", you will most likely hate this movie, which is all about inter-personal relationships and where much of what is going on is left implicit.
I also suspect that this is a movie that requires at least a mild understanding of the state of the Arab-Israeli relationship to be really appreciated. But overall "The band's visit" really succeeds in many ways. It's *very* well acted (Ronit Elkabetz is outstanding as Dina). It feels real, even if some of the characters appears to have jumped out of a comic movie (e.g. the Isreali guy who never went with a woman). It includes both hilarious and very sad moments. It deals with a fairly un-original framework (how casual encounters may change our lives forever) in a very orginal way, and without actually describing a clear resolution. We do not know for sure what will happen to the main characters, but we are given hints. Probably the deputy-conductor will finish that concerto after all. Probably the conductor will forgive the young violinist's mistake, so perhaps atoning for his inability to forgive his son years before. Perhaps the conductor will even open up himself to life and love in the future, after having glimpsed possibilities with Dina.
Where I do not agree with other reviewers' point of view is in seeing this movie as successful at showing us how deep cultural and historical divisions can be easily bridged once people start talking to each other. This is, unfortunately, quite naive. Even so, this remains an excellent bitter-sweet movie about human relationships, and even though its "political" content may be weak, I would still recommend it to anyone who likes this sort of understated story-telling.
'My Funny Valentine': A Little Film with a Tender Message August 11, 2008
156 out of 158 found this review helpful
'It's the wrong time and the wrong place...' - there are so many excerpts of songs quoted in this movie and ones that stimulate memories of old songs that are very much in keeping with the title and the story, THE BAND'S VISIT (BIKUR HA-TIZMORET). A timely piece, this little film is about humanity and the possibility of communication by various means that overcome differences between cultures far better than treaties, summit meetings, and physical and verbal demonstrations. It is a thoughtful, engaging, and completely delightful success.
The Alexandria Police Ceremonial Orchestra with 'General' Tewfiq (Sasson Gabai) rigidly in charge provides music for occasions, and the particular occasion for this venture is a ceremony in Israel. Flying in from Egypt well dressed in light blue uniforms to perform for the new Arab Culture Center, the small band is not met as expected at the airport. Tewfiq attempts to resolve the lack of proper greeting and transportation by reserving space on a bus - a trip that mistakenly (through problems originating in language confusion) results in the band being dropped off in a small village Bet Hatikva. Frustrated with circumstances, the band is met with genial hospitality by cafe owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) who not only feeds them but puts the small band up for the evening. Dina has eyes for Tewfig and plans an evening out on the town with him - an evening that has its own surprises as each lonely person shares life circumstances. The other members of the band are placed in lodging with Dina's workers and at a dinner party discover similarities in their lives. Khaled (Saleh Bakri), a somewhat antagonistic ladies' man, spends an evening with a terrified young man Papi (Shlomi Avraham) on his first real date, and in the course of the evening introduces the fine art of courtship to Papi in a hilarious but touching scene.
The use of English as the common language between these Arab and Hebrew speaking people adds elements of humor as well as moments of sweetness as both the band members and the Israelis grow to know and care about each other. The conversations among each separate group are delivered in Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles and this degree of modified privacy becomes almost more humorous because of the bumpy language barriers shared with the audience. Everyone grows through this short visit and by the time the band departs for their correct destination by the next morning's bus, bonds have been made that preserve the dignity of nationality while overriding the limitations of differences peculiar to each country. This is a quiet, gentle, at times very humorous little movie that offers insights of how to attain global community for us all. Writer/director Eran Kolirin deserves special recognition for assembling and molding this excellent cast for this remarkable, genuinely compassionate statement about important issues. Grady Harp, August 08
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