Bikur Ha-Tizmoret
Director: Eran Kolirin
Starring: Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, Khalifa Natour
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.
A lovely, smart and beautifully understated film.
Something marvelous happens as the filmmaker, in his first feature, expertly metes out small scenes of communication between people taught, for generations, to be wary of one another: This Band swings with the rhythms of hope.
It's a small, profoundly satisfying movie that keeps echoing long after it's over.
Both sweet-natured and sharply pointed, a film whose poignant, emotional effects and subtle acting sneak up on you.
Asia Pacific Screen Awards (2007)
Best Director
Athens International Film Festival (2007)
Best Actor
Awards of the Israeli Film Academy (2007)
Eran Kolirin
Cannes Film Festival (2007)
Best Foreign Language Film
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards (2008)
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