Israeli movies review: The Band's Visit

A few days ago I watched a very interesting Israeli movie called The Band's Visit (Bikur HaTizmoret), which I highly recommend. I don't need to praise any further that highly acclaimed movie that has already won dozens of international awards.

A small Egyptian police band arrives in Israel to play at an initiation ceremony. To their great dismay, no one is there to welcome them at the airport. The band tries to make their way to the Arab cultural center on their own, only to find themselves in a desolate development town, somewhere in the Israeli desert.

The first encounter between the Egyptian police officer and an Israeli woman introduces us to two opposite types of characters. When the officer asks the Israeli woman where the Arab cultural center is located, she firmly responds: "No Arab culture here, no Israeli culture, no culture at all". The Israeli is portrayed as informal with open in mannerism which may even come across as vulgar. The Arab is portrayed as polite, formal and refrained. The two visibly and drastically different individuals form a very unique friendship in the movie. As you might expect from the title, music as at the heart of the film; with great magic it binds people together. This only goes to show how art can create most unusual of human connections.

The Band's Visit was submitted for the Best Foreign Language Film Category in 2008. However, the films was disqualified by the Oscar committee because its dialogues were mostly in English. The irony is that the English spoken by the characters only further emphasizes how foreign these two cultures are to each other. This movies is another example at the dramatic progress that the Israeli cinema has made in the last decade. I'd definitely give us an Oscar!

Watch The Band's Visit trailer