Review

Review Date: 2-March-08
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Juicy

The Band's Visit (2008)

The fabric of "The Band's Visit" is woven from the lightest, most gossamer thread. The entire plot can be stated in a simple sentence: an Egyptian octet gets marooned for a night in an out-of-the-way Israeli town. Yet the narrative is shot through with enough warmth and wistfulness to make the movie feel whole. It spreads smiles if not laughter and aches if not tears.

The desert town in which the Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra finds itself after an en-route miscommunication is not a place anybody would call an oasis, not even the Israelis who live there. (It has only pretty streetlights to recommend it.) Not that the boys in the band would have viewed getting lost as an opportunity had they landed someplace else. With the exception of a handsome playboy (Saleh Bakri), the orchestra is comprised of taciturn and tradition-bound older men. They are mortified to have gone astray, and none more so than their stern leader (Sasson Gabai). Painfully conscious of his need to preserve their dignity, he initially declines the invitation of the locals to dine and sleep in their homes until the bus arrives the next morning.

The locals stand in marked contrast to their unexpected guests, being younger, hipper, and more open to the unknown. And then of course there is the Arab-Israeli tension, which writer/director Eran Kolirin likely does not stress because it is taken for granted in his world. (The movie is mostly in English, the only language the two groups have in common.) The boldest of the locals is a restauranteur named Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) who has been around the block a few times and has the scars and desperation to prove it. She takes an immediate fancy to the leader of the band and treats him (or is it subjects him?) to an evening of hesitant companionship.

This is all "The Band's Visit" is about: the quiet groping for understanding between strangers whose only link is the knowledge that human relationships are hard. As Dina tries to make time with her guest, the band's second-in-command (Khalifa Natour) shares a moment with an Israeli husband and father (Rubi Moskovitz) whose home life is strained, while the playboy educates a nerd (Shlomi Avraham) on the art of wooing women. Then morning comes and the orchestra leaves. Will the characters remember the night in years to come? Probably. Will it change their lives for better or worse? Probably not. But if there is any meaning in attempts and small triumphs at connection, particularly among historical enemies, then "The Band's Visit" has value in itself.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.