The Band’s Visit

On the surface, The Band’s Visit is a film about an Egyptian police band, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, lost in Israel for a night. The band is set to play at an Arab cultural center but ends up in a city of “no cultural center, no culture at all” due to the ineptitude of one of the musician’s English skills. Once the band finds out there are no more buses for the day and no hotels in the town, they must stay the night with several Israelis. Underneath, however, it is about men from two different cultures discovering how much they have in common.

Although the musicians receive glances and taunts from others in the town, their hosts behave civilly towards the Arab guests. Music plays an essential part in the relationships that develop between the musicians and their hosts, as the title would suggest. The hosts express a fascination with music and engage their guests through conversation about music. This common interest in music eventually leads to deeper understandings of one another as the Egyptians and the Israelis open up to each other more and more.

The Band’s Visit provides a thoughtful and humorous meditation on universality and expectations. Though the film recently won eight Israeli Academy Awards, The Band’s Visit was disqualified as Israel’s submission to the 2008 Academy Awards because strict Academy guidelines prevent a film from being classified as “foreign language” if more than 50 percent of the dialogue is in English.

Writer/director Eran Kolirin sat down with the the Muse to talk about his debut feature.

Muse: How personal is the film for you; are you a musician for example?

Eran Kolirin: Yeah, I’m kind of a frustrated musician, a very bad one. And yeah, it’s a very personal movie for me. Not necessarily in the most obvious biographical way –– I never had an encounter with Egyptian policemen. It’s personal in the way that movies and art are; they kind of sum up your inner psychological feelings.

Muse: Have you dealt with both Arab and Israeli cultures?

EK: Finding my own identity, looking for my own identity as someone who lives in the Middle East who has roots also in Europe and [lives] the schizophrenic existence of Israel: being on the one hand separated from the region and on the other hand kind of wanting to have some connection to the region. [Israel], on some other days, wants to be all immersed in the West. Also in my own personal life, [dealing with] the loss of my naiveté . . . and you know all those things came together for my film.

Muse: What was the inspiration for the quirky character in The Band’s Visit who waits for hours at a pay phone for his girlfriend to call?

EK: The Middle East is a very waiting region, the most waiting region in the world. I was joking with an Egyptian guy I met who saw the film about how much waiting there is in the Middle East, just waiting for something to happen! But also, my wife, my son and I used to live in this apartment in Tel Aviv and there used to be some guy I noticed in the street who would sit in his car for hours and hours every day and me and my wife would call him “the waiter.” We would joke about the waiter, waiting for something. Then one day I walked into the street and I [saw] him again in his car, but with a woman this time, [whom] he was kissing passionately. He was 50 years old or 60 and so was she and you know, he waits, and when she has the feeling for it, she comes!

Muse: In writing the film, did you seek to comment on Arab-Israeli relations primarily or to create a broader tale of clashing cultures?

EK: It’s not such an analytical process. You don’t say ‘This is the most important thing.’ When you create, it’s not as structured as an essay. It’s kind of a mural of your own psychological state in the moment. The same way you as a person have your personal life, feelings about politics, your theory of the universe or your relationship with your cat, [the film] consists of many things . . . that all come together. It’s not as structured as you described it, it comes much more from the way you are.

--- Michael O'Leary, Muse Staff Writer