The Band's Visit

"The Band's Visit"

Eran Kolirin, 2007

This film is unusually slow. Most of the shots remain stationary, and whenever we view streets, which the director Eran Kolirin shows us to an almost obsessive extent, there are no visible signs of life. This is all appropriate given that his film is about listless people who are trapped in a long-forgotten area of Israel. Here's the premise: an Egyptian police band, which is humorously given the long-winded title "The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra," lands in Israel, and instead of taking a bus to the large Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tiqvah, where they are to give a performance the next day, they accidentally take a bus in the opposite direction, to the isolated desert town of Beit Hatikvah.

It is there that both groups, the bored, suspicious residents and the fatigued, equally wary band members, collide. "The Band's Visit," which extracts most of its humor from the awkward nature of these characters' interactions, feels like a strange hybrid between a Wes Anderson film and last year's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." Kolirin uses wide-angle lenses on his characters who stand uncomfortably within the frame, and he gives his film a patient, methodical pace. Unfortunately, "The Band's Visit" tends to verge on the saccharine, and despite some fun moments where the residents and the band members transcend their unease with one another, the film can't shake off the mustiness that stems from its stagnant setting and its sluggish pacing. The next day, the band members catch their bus, arrive in Petah Tiqvah, and perform their concert. Life moves on, but their experience doesn't feel all that significant.

Rating: 6

First Viewed: 8/1/08, on DVD
IMDb