In Eran Kolirin's stripped-down and understated human comedy "The Band's Visit," a small orchestra made up of eight uniformed Egyptian policemen travels to Israel as part of a cultural-exchange program. Thanks to a scheduling snafu, the band members find themselves stranded in a tiny village in the Negev Desert where they are looked after by a kind and attractive restaurateur (the luminous Ronit Elkabetz) and one of her friends who agree to put the men up for the night. The musicians include a crusty old conductor, played by the marvelously deadpan Sasson Gabai, and a handsome young womanizer and trumpet player (Saleh Bakri) who don't exactly see eye-to-eye on much concerning either music or life.
Like many such films from abroad, "The Band's Visit" eschews obvious narrative flourishes in favor of a more slice-of-life approach to storytelling - indeed, almost to a fault in the case of this particular film. Yet, while there are times when the movie's "smallness" is of so determined and deliberate a nature that it begins to border on the self-conscious, "The Band's Visit" finds its truths in the minutiae of everyday life, in the heartfelt exchanges between characters (particularly between Gabai and Elkabetz), and in the way it acknowledges the commonality of the human condition. The people in the film may come from different - even antagonistic - cultures, but they are quick to discover that there is far more that unites them than divides them in the grander scheme of things.
Coming in at a brief 86-minute running time, "The Band's Visit" is a mere vignette in what is obviously a larger tale of Egypt/Israel relations, one that makes its case for cooperation among all the world's peoples without undue fuss or fanfare.
Like many such films from abroad, "The Band's Visit" eschews obvious narrative flourishes in favor of a more slice-of-life approach to storytelling - indeed, almost to a fault in the case of this particular film. Yet, while there are times when the movie's "smallness" is of so determined and deliberate a nature that it begins to border on the self-conscious, "The Band's Visit" finds its truths in the minutiae of everyday life, in the heartfelt exchanges between characters (particularly between Gabai and Elkabetz), and in the way it acknowledges the commonality of the human condition. The people in the film may come from different - even antagonistic - cultures, but they are quick to discover that there is far more that unites them than divides them in the grander scheme of things.
Coming in at a brief 86-minute running time, "The Band's Visit" is a mere vignette in what is obviously a larger tale of Egypt/Israel relations, one that makes its case for cooperation among all the world's peoples without undue fuss or fanfare.