The Band’s Visit

Rating:

By Willie Krischke – August 5, 2008

“The Band’s Visit” is a small miracle of a film, about the small miracle of real communication. A lot of love went into this filmmaking. Shots are carefully composed, scenes are skillfully underacted. It moves slowly, but never a moment is wasted; it’s directed with a patience and purpose that conveys the director’s confidence that, if the story is told well enough, the audience will wait for it. It was a sweet break from the frenetic pace and overzealous production of most American films. I was so impressed with the composition of this film that I just kept pausing it and looking at the images; I’m going to litter this review with those images so that you get to see how good they are, too.

The film follows an Egyptian Police Orchestra – one of those totally pointless but absolutely important institutions – who get stranded in a small Israeli town and must rely on the hospitality of the Jews there to get back on track. Traditionally enemies, “The Band’s Visit” shows both Egyptians and Jews to be simple folk, often lonely or confused, often relying on protocol to get through life, and woefully unequipped to cross the borders between each other. And yet they try, and sometimes, they succeed. Those are the sublime moments, the kind of moments you go to movies to experience.

Much of the movie is concerned with the ability of music to bring people together, in small ways. Almost all of the band members are clearly the kind of guys who took to music because normal human interaction just wasn’t working for them, and they’ve found a way to express with their instruments something completely beyond their ability with words or gestures. Even the one handsome band member, a ladies’ man, woos women with a Chet Baker pickup line and tune. He uses the same line and hums the same tune every time. Music is great stuff, “The Band’s Visit” seems to say, and we completely agree.

But the heart of the movie is the relationship between Tewfiq, the aging conductor, and Dina, the owner of the restaurant where the band ends up. Both have lived lives full of regret, and are old enough to know that they don’t have much to look forward to. Dinah gravitates to Tewfiq, even though the younger men pursue her, and Tewfiq hides behind protocol and immaculate manners, which maybe is what attracts her to him. In a “traditional” movie, these two would sleep together, and that would be called a payoff. In this movie, it would cheapen their relationship.

Recommended

• For those with patience, and an eye for small wonders
• For anyone who’s ever played in a community band.

Not Recommended

• For those who needs lots of explosions, bank robberies, affairs, and/or heart-on-their-sleeve characters in their movies.
• If you hear “Arabs stuck in Israel” and you think geopolitical tensions. It’s there, but deeply buried, and not what this movie is about.