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Review #1

Location

Review of the 2nd KFS June feature
June 27-29
(additional reviews are available below our featured review)

The Band's Visit

Reviewed by Ann Hornaday
The Washington Post

A mini-scandal erupted earlier this year when "The Band's Visit," Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin's sublime and bittersweet comedy, was disqualified as a nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar because it contained too much English.

Now, audiences can see for themselves, and they will no doubt agree that this smart, subtle, deceptively simple little film was robbed. With luck, filmgoers who discover this gem about an Egyptian police band stranded in a small Israeli town will make it the must-see movie of the season.

It begins just as eight men who make up the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrive at an unnamed Israeli airport. They're on their way to perform at an Arab culture center, but between their Arabic, broken English and nonexistent Hebrew, they wind up in a dusty desert backwater, befuddled but still impeccably turned out in their handsome light-blue uniforms. Stuck for the night, until the next bus comes, the musicians warily navigate what passes for life in the moribund town, with the group's proper, diffident conductor, Tewfiq (Sasson Gabai), striking up a friendship with an earthy, direct cafe owner named Dina (Ronit Elkabetz); a handsome young violinist named Khaled (Saleh Bakri) embarking on an improbably eventful night on the town; and a clarinetist named Simon (Khalifa Natour) finding himself at an awkward dinner with two alternately mistrustful and expansive Jewish couples.

Although a political subtext informs the entire encounter between the band and their hosts, it remains bubbling beneath the surface.

Kolirin focuses on the ballet of human interaction, letting scenes unfold with few words and a multitude of gestures and meanings, resulting in a small masterpiece of quiet, expressive physical comedy. What ultimately makes "The Band's Visit" such an unmitigated pleasure to watch is the unforced way Kolirin brings the journey to its natural but deeply affecting end.
  -  Ann Hornaday / The Washington Post

For additional reviews of "The Band's Visit", please click here.

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