Saturday, March 29, 2008

The Band's Visit


This is an Israeli film about an Egyptian police ceremonial band invited to play at an Arab cultural center in Israel. By accident they end up in the wrong town and are forced to find accomodations somehow, because the last bus in this quiet outpost has left for the day.

The film attempts to emphasize the common humanity between Arabs and Jews, and there is not much about the movie that is controversial, but it has been banned in Egypt anyway. I think the censors felt uncomfortable with the kissing parts, but you can make up your own minds as to why.

Anyways, there is this awesome song played in the closing credits following the piece the band plays to close the film. Enjoy:

1 comment:

weepingsam said...

A nice little film - felt like Kaurismaki lite, but still likable and well made. And yeah, it as nice the way the end - the band's performance and the credits song - paid off the rest of the film's tendency to steer away from the band's actual competence.