Film

A truly lovely first film from Israeli director Eran Kolirin which offers a Middle Eastern inflection on the bittersweet stylings of Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismäki. We join the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Band (decked out in loud powder-blue suits) as they arrive in a small Israeli town to perform a concert at the local cultural centre. By the time it hits them that they’ve taken a wrong turn, the last bus back to civilisation has gone and they grudgingly accept the sanctuary of kind-hearted bar owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) and resolve to spend a single weird and wonderful night in this desolate nowhere-town.

As the band-members endeavour  to make themselves as discreet as possible, the film pivots on the blossoming almost-relationship between Dina and the band’s irascible leader, Tawfiq (Sasson Gabai), and it’s a union which becomes symbolic of the idea that there is a potential for political and cultural détente if we can just make it over that first, awkward hurdle. Playing to rapturous applause at its first screening in Cannes and going on to win numerous audience awards at festivals, ‘The Band’s Visit’ uses its deadpan compositions and broad comic set-pieces to play very much to the gallery. Kolirin’s sparse direction relies heavily on ironic juxtaposition and what could have easily been a one-trick movie manages to sustain its sweet-natured examination of strangers in a strange land until its moving final scenes. With its themes of social displacement subtly and skilfully enmeshed within a pleasingly straightforward shaggy-dog narrative, this is one of those films that runs at you with open arms, and you’ll find it very difficult not to succumb to its warm, warm embrace.