Written and directed by Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin, “The Band’s Visit” centers around the plight of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra after it arrives in Israel to open an Arab Cultural Center, only to find itself stranded at the airport without a welcoming committee or place to stay. The band finds an unexpected sanctuary at a café that sits at the outskirts of a remote desert town. Before the night is over, both the Egyptian musicians and their Israeli hosts will have grown a little wiser about their respective cultural idiosyncra
This film won several awards in Israel’s version of the Oscars. It sounds potentially funny — I just hope it’s not saccharine, especially as I am allergic to peace orchestras. In any case, one rarely hears about Israeli cinema — the last thing I saw is the very moving (French-Israeli) film about a young Sudanese boy who pretends to be Falasha Jew to become a refugee in Israel: Va, Vis et Deviens. (Update: You can get it on Amazon France.)
The reason you don’t here much about Israeli cinema is because it is really bad. Even when it’s good, it’s not so good. The Israeli Oscars, I imagine, carry about as much weight as the New Jersey Oscars, or the Palau Oscars — which don’t exist, but even then the comparison probably holds. This is the conclusion I have come to after watching more than a few bad/mediocre movies that won “Israeli Oscars”.
It has stumped me and several members of my family, why this is so. Why can the Palestinians come up with “Paradise Now”, but Israel can’t do much better than “Walk on Water”? It is a mystery for the ages.
Va, Vis et Deviens isn’t out on DVD yet… it sounds very good, what a shame.
Your techno music is also horrible. 🙂
I have Va, vis et deviens on DVD from Belgium. (link above in post)
FYI “Paradise Now” is an Jewish-Palestinian Israeli production which, because of people like you who measure art by political criteria, was promoted as a Palestinian one… Just take a look at the list of credits in the end of the film!
Why are you allergic to peace orchestras? Is it because you don’t play a musical instrument? That would make sense then.
Mr. A —
I don’t measure art by political criteria. I thought Paradise Now’s politics were crap, personally. But it was also a good, taught piece of entertainment, whose story and characters came first and whose politics, I felt, came second. (Would’ve been decent of them to actually *show* the suicide bombing, at the end–all those dead Israelis–so that it would be a bit harder to accept the one character as a hero/victim… but what can you do.)
Now that I looked into it, quickly, I see one of its co-producers, at least, was Israeli. And the director is about as Palestinian as I am Israeli, cos he’s studied and lived abroad most of his life. And he has an Israeli passport. And the movie was made with French funds and primarily, it seems, a Dutch producer. Still, I don’t know I would call it a “Jewish-Palestinian Israeli production”. The Israeli Film Fund didn’t even fund the film. I’m sure the filmmakers needed Israeli permits, to shoot in Tel Aviv, but not in Nablus where most of it was shot. Etc etc etc. Were the actors Arab Israeli, or something?
Issandr —
I heard Ushpizin (another recent Israeli film) was not bad, or even pretty good… I just queued it on Netflix. We’ll see. But as for the French Amazon link to Va Vis et Deviens… I can’t get it! It’s Region 2, which I can’t play (I think) on my DVD player. Also, I doubt it’ll have English sous titres? And my French is back down to about a kindergarden level. So I’ll just have to wait.
Dan, you are completely off about Israeli cimena. I don’t think you have seen very much of it. And just like the oscars in the US, they aren’t always the best films. The big cities hold Israeli film festivals every year, asy ou may know. They have subtitles in English.