Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 114
Fresh: 112 | Rotten: 2
The Band's Visit is both a clever, subtle slice-of-life comedy, and poignant cross-cultural exploration.
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 0
The Band's Visit is both a clever, subtle slice-of-life comedy, and poignant cross-cultural exploration.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 12,626
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When the Ceremonial Police Band of Alexandria, Egypt, journeys to a gig in Israel, they can hardly anticipate getting stuck in a rut. But upon arrival at the Israeli airport, their hosts and transportation fail to show. So begins first-time director Eran Kolirin's fish-out-of-water comedy The Band's Visit (aka Bikur Hatizmoret, 2007). Trapped in a middle-of-nowhere desert town, the group members try to figure out what to do and where to go. In desperation, two of the musicians -- conductor
Dec 7, 2007 Limited
Jul 29, 2008
$3.0M
Sony Pictures Classics
All Critics (114) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (114) | Rotten (2) | DVD (2)
The Band's Visit has pathos, but it is also very funny.
Like no fish-out-of-water film in recent memory, it leaves you with the hope that these fish will find their way back to water, and maybe learn to share that puddle before the desert dries it up entirely.
Kolirin has a fine sense of where to place the camera and when to cut between shots for maximum comic effect.
It's a small, profoundly satisfying movie that keeps echoing long after it's over.
A quiet, sympathetic film about the loneliness that surrounds us.
You can watch The Band's Visit for its political idealism, or you can watch it for entertainment value alone. In either case, it doesn't disappoint.
[Writer/director Eran] Kolirin finds bittersweet humor in the comedy of their melancholy lives and fumbling efforts at communication and common ground
Filmmaker Kolirin shows Israelis what they've been missing, and the rest of us what the Middle East could be, in the gentle, human-scale antics of the confused Egyptian band.
A conventional humanistic parable that it is wise and graceful all the same
Not so much a story about Jews and Arabs finding a way to get along as it is a nonpolitical story about people discovering the humanity in others, in all their scared, awkward beauty.
Some of the humorous and touching explorations between the band and their hosts are predictable, but a sweet portrait of humanism amidst language and cultural confusion.
... the sometimes awkward, sometimes easy interactions of former national enemies who don't speak the same language but manage to find common ground nonetheless.
One of the film's prime strengths is its wordless willingness to let the principal characters express themselves through music and mime to overcome cultural barriers. [DVD]
This foreign film is a sweet, lower-than-low-key story of an Egyptian police band that arrives in the wrong Israeli town.
Those who like their comedy, romance, and tragedy in quiet doses should enjoy this textured story.
A great little film that's deserving of a wide audience.
A witty, elegant and deeply affecting film.
What matters is the sense of exhilaration you take away with you.
funny, sweet and touching
There are no major plot points or dramatic arcs in The Band's Visit, but through its awkward pauses, there's plenty of nuance and wry humour.
A film of exquisite charm, beauty, humor and humanity -- with some of the best performances you're likely to encounter in some considerable time.
The Band's Visit is a charming little drama that skirts sentimentality and manages to be a feel-good film without necessarily feeling very good.
The 34-year-old Israeli director Eran Kolirin's debut feature is a good one.
A trip to Israeli nowheresville by a minor Egyptian civic band is an occasion for a interesting little filmic investigation into what forces make us all tick. Everyone expects trouble ... and are pleasantly disappointed. Slowly budding revelation sparkles like light on a pond across the faces of this cast of
November 7, 2011Super Reviewer
A touching and considered slice of life that's kind of like those small-town-in-the-Midwest movies where everyone's in pain, except it happens in the Israeli desert, and the new guys in town are a police band from Egypt. A lean film, but one that still takes its time, and one that was well lauded on the festival
June 9, 2011Super Reviewer
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