An Egyptian Police Band has been engaged to perform at an Arab Cultural Centre in Petah Tikvah. They descend from their bus, resplendent in their blue uniforms and rather stiff and ill at ease to be in Israel. It turns out that their bus has deposited them just outside Beith Ha-Tikvah, in the middle of nowhere, and there is no one to receive them. Beith Ha-Tikvah not only has no Cultural Arab Centre, but according to Dina (a young Israeli woman stuck there) not much culture of any kind, nor, for that matter, a hotel where they can stay until the next bus out on the following day. Dina arranges for them to stay the night in various local homes. The Egyptians are (with the exception of one member of the band) embarrassed and painfully polite, and the rest of the film shows mainly how Dina (mainly) tries and eventually succeeds in getting them, and especially their captain to relax a little. I think the film, getting a lot of laughs out of pointing up the contrast between the relaxed Israelis and the constrained Egyptians, is rather patronizing towards the Egyptians - one can just imagine how an Israeli film maker would portray an Israeli band if the roles were reversed! - but, other than that, the heart of the film is in the right place, aiming to show their common humanity and their common suffering (and the suffering of the Egyptian captain and the Israeli girl have NOT been caused by politics or war, but have to do with their private lives.) And, as a contrast to the embarrassed Egyptians, there is also a young inhibited Israeli boy who has to be taught by the one relaxed Egyptian how to approach a girl. The film is amusing, sometimes touching, sometimes a little sentimental. The performances of Ronit Elkabetz as Dina and Sasson Gabbai as the Egyptian captain are superb.
Review of The Band's Visit
