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17 88 Minutes
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Band's Visit, The
Sony Pictures Classics


8.7

based on 29 reviews
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based on 16 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language

Starring Ronit Elkabetz, Sasson Gabai, Uri Gavriel, Imad Jabarin, Ahuva Keren, Rubi Moskovitz, Khalifa Natour, and Hilla Sarjon

The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel to play at the opening of an Arab Cultural Center. Dressed in full regalia and observing all military police protocol, the members of the orchestra are at a pivotal time in their careers. It’s not just the political nature of an Arab military police band playing traditional Arab music in Israel that makes this event so important; budget cuts and many reorganizations have threatened the continued existence of the Orchestra. Faced with the heavy burden of this assignment, the stoic conductor Tewfiq is determined not to foul their excursion. Despite all Tewfiqs efforts, it’s not long before problems arise. The band arrives at the airport with no one there to greet them. Stranded and unable able to contact their Israeli hosts or the Egyptian consulate for help, Tewfiq decides that the Orchestra will persevere with its assignment and orders, and designates Khaled, a sauve young ladies man, to ask for directions. Khaled and the station agent struggle in English, Arabic and Hebrew to communicate, but despite their best efforts, the Orchestra is sent to the outskirts of a small forgotten Israeli town in the desert. (Sony Classics)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Eran Kolirin
DIRECTED BY:	Eran Kolirin
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 29, 2008 Theatrical: February 8, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	87 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Israel / France / USA
LANGUAGE(S):	Arabic / English / Hebrew

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Empire Will Lawrence

A heartfelt, wry and decidedly spry film.

100

San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand

A lovely, smart and beautifully understated film.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The Band’s Visit has not provided any of the narrative payoffs we might have expected, but has provided something more valuable: An interlude involving two “enemies,” Arabs and Israelis, that shows them both as only ordinary people with ordinary hopes, lives and disappointments. It has also shown us two souls with rare beauty.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

This movie has a tone, look and mood all its own - it's a joyously bittersweet piece of visual music about isolation, melancholy and everyone's yearning for transcendence, through love, art or both.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Something marvelous happens as the filmmaker, in his first feature, expertly metes out small scenes of communication between people taught, for generations, to be wary of one another: This Band swings with the rhythms of hope.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

First-time filmmaker Kolirin paces his can-we-all-just-get-along? parable as if it were a silent comedy, which for long stretches it is. This movie about musicians has no soundtrack. Its musical moments are few, but potent.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It's a small, profoundly satisfying movie that keeps echoing long after it's over.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

A modest and charming comedy from Israel.

TV Guide Ken Fox

A remote, Israeli desert town is the setting for this droll, endearing comedy about an accidental cultural exchange that very quietly says some very important things about contemporary Arab-Israeli relations.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Tonally, The Band's Visit steps gingerly on the line between “sweetly humane” and “cloyingly quirky.”

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A charming little film built of bits of music, romance, cultural conflict and the simple human need to connect.

Slate Dana Stevens

It's a delicate parable, droll rather than funny, wise rather than smart. Eran Kolirin, debuting as a writer-director, has the deadpan sparseness of the Finnish Aki Kaurismaki, but his vision is gentler, less bleak; at moments, the movie is almost sentimental, but the performances save it every time.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The Band’s Visit resounds with tenderness and melancholy.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Smart, subtle, deceptively simple little.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

There is no shortage of remarkable moments.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Both sweet-natured and sharply pointed, a film whose poignant, emotional effects and subtle acting sneak up on you.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Has an irresistible tragic and romantic undertow.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

A "little" film with a great reach.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

By the time Tawfiq, Dina, and the band’s boy Lothario, Haled (Bakri), commiserate over “My Funny Valentine” in the film’s sublime third act, writer/director Kolirin has created a remarkable world where no struggle is too severe to overcome with a little empathy and the Great American Songbook on your side.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

You can watch The Band’s Visit for its political idealism, or you can watch it for entertainment value alone. In either case, it doesn’t disappoint.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The movie, which is as low-key and subdued as Tewfiq himself, is something of a marvel: a precious work of minimalism that, instead of disappearing into itself the way so many small-scale comedies do, grows before your eyes into something profound and profoundly affecting.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A drama about isolation and communication, The Band's Visit is characterized both by strongly delineated characters and low-key comedy. The movie is not lightweight but it is at times lighthearted.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This modest little fable from Israel, in English, Hebrew and Arabic, has spellbinding resonances, yet never breaks the spell by blowing its own horn.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. Kolirin, it emerges, is wrenching comedy out of intense melancholia.

Variety Jay Weissberg

A warm and delightful take on cross-cultural relations that proves that sometimes a light touch is just what's needed to address serious topics.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

As the film concludes with his upraised hand, conductor’s fingers unfurling against a blue sky, you do feel that you have witnessed a small victory of wisdom over indifference and ennui. When in doubt, strike up the band.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

I’d be lying if I said that The Band’s Visit isn’t touching and uplifting and all those other audience-friendly emotions against which film critics are believed to religiously steel themselves. But in a season rife with movies (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Grace Is Gone, The Kite Runner, et al.) that aggressively pry open viewers’ chest cavities and yank on their heartstrings, Kolirin’s film is the only one that plucks at them gently, tickling the funny bone as it goes.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Kolirin has a fine sense of where to place the camera and when to cut between shots for maximum comic effect, and his two lead actors--Sasson Gabai as the band's conductor and Ronit Elkabetz (Or) as one of the locals--are terrific.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

A slight but wise comedy about the loneliness that makes all men brothers.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a10:
All dressed up and nowhere to go, the Egyptian Invasion of Israel gets off to an ignominious start when The Alexandria Police Ceremonial Orchestra find themselves in the wrong town, the wrong Bet Hatkiva. This Bet Hatkiva is practically a ghost town, whose chosen people, choose to live by the tenets of minimalism. In spite of the orchestra's extended layover, these stoic musicians remain in their formal blue uniforms, which grows increasingly hilarious as they clash repeatedly with the drab interiors and exteriors of the town. The band is like some straight-laced person's acid flashback. The clash of egos between Tewfiq(Sasson Gabai) and Simon(Khalifa Natour), and the filmmaker's absurdest sensibilities, results in a film that suggests "This is Spinal Tap" by Beckett. Tewfiq and Dina(Ronit Elkabetz) sit on a "park" bench, waiting, not for Godot, but for love to arrive. Unfortunately, Dina makes an offhanded comment about Arab men which rankles the lieutenant-colonel; so natural, is the buried expression, like breathing, does her deal-breaking words of racial stereotyping, suddenly politicize their sitting and talking, once mired with great expectations for love. Alas, God rears its ugly head. Wistful, but never gloomy(like the "gloomy girl", a possible nod to Aki Kaurismaki's "Leningrad Cowboys Go America"), "The Band's Visit" shares the same comic touch for miniature emotions as the Finnish master of the subtle ha-ha.

Jay H. gave it an8:
Outstanding film, wonderfully directed, superbly acted. Touching, very well written and always interesting. Good score, excellent character development. A winner.

Khan M. gave it a9:
One of the finest examples of film aesthetics. One can never be bored or tired of watching this beautifully made movie.

Paul K. gave it an8:
The pace is somewhat slow, but if you can get past that minor hurdle, this is quite a nice film. Donna C. described it as charming, although I normally don't use the word, it pretty much sums this film up. A simple story, told in a straight forward manner, 'The Band's Visit' is breath of fresh air. Check it out.

Donna C. gave it a6:
Charming, but so slow it was tedious.

Patrick T. gave it a10:
You may not have a more thoroughly enjoyable time at the movies this year. Stark yet sumptuous in its implications. Sweet yet devastatingly sad. An immensely pleasurable exercise in contrast and plurality.

Band's Visit, The Sony Pictures Classics

Band's Visit, The
Sony Pictures Classics