Memorable music

>> Eran Kolirin scores with the nostalgic
Israeli film The Band’s Visit

by MATTHEW HAYS

Given the situation in the Middle East, the arrival of The Band’s Visit couldn’t be more timely. But the previous sentence would fit at virtually any point in the past 40 years. The new feature by Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin is a film that plays on the ongoing Israeli-Arab strife that plagues the region.

In it, an Egyptian military orchestra flies to Israel to perform at a new Arab cultural centre. Despite being with the military, they seem a ragtag bunch, and they are clearly out of their element. Only a couple of them are functional in English or Hebrew, so it’s tough going when they arrive and find that, to their surprise, there is no one there to greet them.

They decide to persevere, and though low on cash, they venture towards their small-town destination. When they arrive, they learn that the very small town doesn’t seem to know of their existence, and the townsfolk have not heard of any cultural centre. The Egyptians are strangers in a strange land, but the waitress at one tiny café offers them a place to stay for a night, and a meal.

What could have been entirely cringe-worthy in less capable hands works beautifully in The Band’s Visit. There is no treacly payoff, the kind deemed obligatory in a Hollywood studio film or a Sundance clone. Instead, Kolirin shows us a group of disparate people, caught up in unusual circumstances, who somehow make their way through an odd night.

It’s a confident film, one made all the more striking in the knowledge that this is a feature debut for Kolirin. In his director’s statement, Kolirin recalls that Israeli TV used to screen Egyptian films routinely, broadcasts that were often followed by Arab orchestras playing music. He recalls finding this odd, seeing as the countries had so recently been at war. He laments that these screenings no longer occur on Israeli TV.

That sense of longing, of nostalgia, of elegy, runs beautifully through The Band’s Visit. It’s a film that sticks with you, one that seems simple on its surface but is actually complex, intricate and thoughtful.

The Band’s Visit opens
this Friday, March 7

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