The Band's Visit
Encyclopedia
The Band's Visit is an acclaimed 2007
Israeli
film directed by Eran Kolirin
.
The Band's Visit was Israel's original Foreign Language Film submission for the 80th Academy Awards
, but was rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
because it contained over 50% English
dialogue. Thus, Israel sent Beaufort
instead; Beaufort was finally included in the five final nominees. 'Band's Visit' won eight Israeli Ophir Prizes awarded by the Israeli Film Academy.
Ceremonial Police Orchestra, consisting of eight men, arrive in Israel from Egypt
. They have been booked by an Arab cultural center in Petah Tiqva, but through a miscommunication (Arabic has no "p" sound, and regularly replaces it with "b"), the band takes a bus to Bet Hatikva, a fictional town in the middle of the Negev Desert
. There is no transportation out of the city that day, and there are no hotels for them to spend the night in. The band members dine at a small restaurant where the owner, Dina (Ronit Elkabetz
) invites them to stay the night at her apartment, at her friends' apartment, and in the restaurant. That night challenges all of the characters.
's characterization and playing of Tawfiq Zacharya was hailed by the critics, who described him as "an actor of real skill, and an artist capable of the deepest understanding of the human condition."
During the Israeli Film Academy Awards Ceremony in September 2007, Saleh Bakri
, "the band's handsome young trumpet player" thanked his parents and said, "I want to thank my father, who taught me to love mankind, and my mother, who taught me to bear the burden of life in this country and stand strong," he said.
For her role in the movie, critics described Ronit Elkabetz as "wonderful...a kind-hearted lonely heart refusing to wilt in her desert town". During the Israeli Film Academy Awards Ceremony in September 2007, Elkabetz brought a message of reconciliation and hope, and after taking a bow before the film's director, she said to him, "You reminded us of a thing or two that we have already managed to forget. You showed us what would happen if we would stand before each other, Jews and Arabs and look each other in the eye."
reported that 98% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 108 reviews, and gave it a golden tomato for best foreign film of 2008.
Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter
named the film the second best of 2007,
V.A. Musetto of the New York Post
named it the 8th best film of 2007,
and both Ella Taylor
of LA Weekly
and Associated Press
film critic David Germain named it the 9th best film of 2007.
Roger Ebert
included it on his list of 20 best films of the 2008.
According to 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."
The skating rink scene is considered a highlight of the film: "The band's handsome young trumpet player, Haled, who idolizes jazz
icon Chet Baker
, encounters the resident Papi (Shlomi Avraham), an Israeli nebbish and accompanies him on a blind date at a roller-skating rink. When the local boy proves too awkward to make any advances to his date, the more experienced Egyptian guides him along, wordlessly, but with eloquent gestures."
, more than half the dialogue in a foreign film entry must be in the originating country's own language. However, The Band's Visit, whose Egyptian and Israeli characters communicate mainly in broken English, didn't meet the requirement and was disqualified by the Oscar committee.
Even so, Sony Pictures, the film's distributor, entered it in the general Oscar categories of best picture, director, screenplay, actor and actress—none of which came through for the film.
"Nobody in Israel thought about the language problem," said Kolirin, who spent four years making the film. When he heard about the adverse American decision, "I was pissed off for a few days, but I've gotten over it," he said during a visit to Los Angeles
.
19 May 2007 (Cannes
)
13 September 2007
18 November 2007 (St. Louis International Film Festival
)
9 September 2007 (Toronto Film Festival)
Nominations
2007 in film
This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...
Israeli
Cinema of Israel
Cinema of Israel refers to movie production in Israel since its founding in 1948. Most Israeli films are produced in Hebrew. Israel has been nominated for more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film than any other country in the Middle East....
film directed by Eran Kolirin
Eran Kolirin
Eran Kolirin is an Israeli screenwriter and film director.His directorial debut and as of 2008 his only feature-length film is The Band's Visit . The film was a critical success, winning eight Awards of the Israeli Film Academy and prizes at several international film festivals...
.
The Band's Visit was Israel's original Foreign Language Film submission for the 80th Academy Awards
80th Academy Awards
The 80th Academy Awards ceremony honored the best films in 2007 and was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST, February 24, 2008 . During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24...
, but was rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
because it contained over 50% English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
dialogue. Thus, Israel sent Beaufort
Beaufort (film)
Beaufort is a 2007 Israeli war film. The film was directed by Joseph Cedar and was co-written by Cedar and Ron Leshem, based on Leshem's If there's a Heaven...
instead; Beaufort was finally included in the five final nominees. 'Band's Visit' won eight Israeli Ophir Prizes awarded by the Israeli Film Academy.
Plot
The AlexandriaAlexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
Ceremonial Police Orchestra, consisting of eight men, arrive in Israel from Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. They have been booked by an Arab cultural center in Petah Tiqva, but through a miscommunication (Arabic has no "p" sound, and regularly replaces it with "b"), the band takes a bus to Bet Hatikva, a fictional town in the middle of the Negev Desert
Negev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
. There is no transportation out of the city that day, and there are no hotels for them to spend the night in. The band members dine at a small restaurant where the owner, Dina (Ronit Elkabetz
Ronit Elkabetz
Ronit Elkabetz is an Israeli actress and filmmaker. She works in both Israeli and French cinema. She has won three Ophir Awards and has received a total of seven nominations.- Biography :...
) invites them to stay the night at her apartment, at her friends' apartment, and in the restaurant. That night challenges all of the characters.
Acting
Sasson GabaiSasson Gabai
Sasson Gabai is an Israeli actor, Jewish and originally from Iraq. He works in Israeli cinema. He has won Award of the Israeli Film Academy, Asia Pacific Screen Award, European Film Awards and Jerusalem Film Festival in 2007 as Best Actor in a highly acclaimed Israeli film "The Band's Visit".He is...
's characterization and playing of Tawfiq Zacharya was hailed by the critics, who described him as "an actor of real skill, and an artist capable of the deepest understanding of the human condition."
During the Israeli Film Academy Awards Ceremony in September 2007, Saleh Bakri
Saleh Bakri
Saleh Bakri - is a Palestinian actor. He began his career in the theater and in 2007 played in two films, The Band's Visit and Salt of this Sea thereby launching a new career...
, "the band's handsome young trumpet player" thanked his parents and said, "I want to thank my father, who taught me to love mankind, and my mother, who taught me to bear the burden of life in this country and stand strong," he said.
For her role in the movie, critics described Ronit Elkabetz as "wonderful...a kind-hearted lonely heart refusing to wilt in her desert town". During the Israeli Film Academy Awards Ceremony in September 2007, Elkabetz brought a message of reconciliation and hope, and after taking a bow before the film's director, she said to him, "You reminded us of a thing or two that we have already managed to forget. You showed us what would happen if we would stand before each other, Jews and Arabs and look each other in the eye."
Critical reception
The Band's Visit was well received by critics. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 98% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 108 reviews, and gave it a golden tomato for best foreign film of 2008.
Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
named the film the second best of 2007,
V.A. Musetto of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
named it the 8th best film of 2007,
and both Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor is a film critic who was a staff writer for the LA Weekly and Village Voice Media, writing film and book reviews, interviews, profiles, and cultural and political commentary from 1989 to 2009, when she and much of the staff were laid off....
of LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
and Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
film critic David Germain named it the 9th best film of 2007.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
included it on his list of 20 best films of the 2008.
According to 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
Entr'acte
' is French for "between the acts" . It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous to an intermission, but it more often indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production...
involving two “enemies,” Arabs and Israelis
Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict refers to political tensions and open hostilities between the Arab peoples and the Jewish community of the Middle East. The modern Arab-Israeli conflict began with the rise of Zionism and Arab Nationalism towards the end of the nineteenth century, and intensified with the...
, that shows them both as only ordinary people with ordinary hopes, lives and disappointments. It has also shown us two souls with rare beauty."
The skating rink scene is considered a highlight of the film: "The band's handsome young trumpet player, Haled, who idolizes jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
icon Chet Baker
Chet Baker
Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...
, encounters the resident Papi (Shlomi Avraham), an Israeli nebbish and accompanies him on a blind date at a roller-skating rink. When the local boy proves too awkward to make any advances to his date, the more experienced Egyptian guides him along, wordlessly, but with eloquent gestures."
Language disqualification
Under the rules of the American AcademyAmerican Academy
American Academy can refer to:*American Academy in Berlin*Dubai American Academy*American Academy of Larnaca*American Academy in Rome*Üsküdar American Academy...
, more than half the dialogue in a foreign film entry must be in the originating country's own language. However, The Band's Visit, whose Egyptian and Israeli characters communicate mainly in broken English, didn't meet the requirement and was disqualified by the Oscar committee.
Even so, Sony Pictures, the film's distributor, entered it in the general Oscar categories of best picture, director, screenplay, actor and actress—none of which came through for the film.
"Nobody in Israel thought about the language problem," said Kolirin, who spent four years making the film. When he heard about the adverse American decision, "I was pissed off for a few days, but I've gotten over it," he said during a visit to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Release dates
19 May 2007 (Cannes2007 Cannes Film Festival
The 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the sixtieth, ran from 16 to 27 May 2007. Wong Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights opened the festival, and Denys Arcand's The Age of Ignorance closed...
)
13 September 2007 18 November 2007 (St. Louis International Film FestivalSt. Louis International Film Festival
The St. Louis International Film Festival is an annual film festival in St. Louis, Missouri, which has been running since 1992. The coordinating organization changed its name to "Cinema St. Louis" in 2003...
)
9 September 2007 (Toronto Film Festival)Awards and nominations
Wins- Best Film - Ophir Award
- Best Director - Ophir Award
- Best Actor - Ophir Award
- Best Actress - Ophir Award
- Best Supporting Actor - Ophir Award
- Best Music - Ophir Award
- Best Screenplay - Ophir Award
- Best Costumes - Ophir Award
- Un Certain Regard - Jury Coup de Coeur - Cannes Film FestivalCannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
2007 - UNESCO Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Promotion and Preservation of Cultural Diversity Through Film at the 2007 Asia Pacific Screen AwardsAsia Pacific Screen AwardsThe Asia Pacific Screen Awards is an international cultural initiative of the State Government of Queensland, Australia, through Events Queensland, to honour and promote the films, actors, directors, and cultures of Asia-Pacific to a global audience and to realise the objectives of UNESCO to...
. - Special Mention - Flanders International Film Festival
- Scythian Deer - Molodist International Film Festival
- Feature Film Award - Montreal Film Festival
- Audience Award - Sarajevo Film FestivalSarajevo Film FestivalThe Sarajevo Film Festival is the premier and largest film festival in the Balkans, and is one of the largest in Europe. It was founded in Sarajevo in 1995 during the siege of Sarajevo, and brings international and local celebrities to Sarajevo every year. It is held in August and showcases an...
- Audience Award - Warsaw International Film Festival
- Grand Prix - Warsaw International Film Festival
- Golden Eye - Zurich Film FestivalZurich Film FestivalThe Zurich Film Festival ' is an important international film festival, held annually in Zurich, Switzerland. A stated objective of the festival is to discover and support young, aspiring filmmakers and to offer the industry, audiences, the press and a broader public an exciting cinema experience...
- New Talent Award - Zurich Film Festival
- Best Actor - European Film Awards
- Best Un-released Film (in Australia) - Australian Film Critics AssociationAustralian Film Critics AssociationThe Australian Film Critics Association or AFCA is an Australian film critic organisation.-History:Formed in 1996, AFCA began as the Melbourne Film Critics’ Forum, expanding to a national organisation in 2004...
Film Awards - Grand Prize - Lino Brocka Award - Cinemanila International Film FestivalCinemanila International Film FestivalThe Cinemanila International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Manila, the Philippines. It was founded by Filipino filmmaker Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz in 1999....
Nominations
- Best Art Direction - Award of the Israeli Film Academy
- Best Cinematography - Award of the Israeli Film Academy
- Best Editing - Award of the Israeli Film Academy
- Best Sound - Award of the Israeli Film Academy
- Best Supporting Actress - Award of the Israeli Film Academy
- Best Screenplay - European Film Awards
- Best Performance by an Actor (Sasson Gabai) - Asia Pacific Screen AwardsAsia Pacific Screen AwardsThe Asia Pacific Screen Awards is an international cultural initiative of the State Government of Queensland, Australia, through Events Queensland, to honour and promote the films, actors, directors, and cultures of Asia-Pacific to a global audience and to realise the objectives of UNESCO to...
- Grand Prix - Flanders International Film Festival
External links
- Trailer at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...