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The Band's Visit

The Band's Visit- Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (original)
The Band's Visit.jpg
Directed by Eran Kolirin
Produced by Ehud Bleiberg
Koby Gal-Raday
Guy Jacoel
Eylon Ratzkovsky
Yossi Uzrad
Written by Eran Kolirin
Starring Saleh Bakri
Ronit Elkabetz
Sasson Gabai
Uri Gavriel
Music by Habib Shadah
Cinematography Shai Goldman
Edited by Arik Leibovitch
Distributed by Sony Classics
Release date
  • 19 May 2007 (2007-05-19)
Running time
87 minutes
Country Israel
France
United States
Language Arabic
English
Hebrew
Box office $14,555,884 (world)

The Band's Visit (Hebrew: ביקור התזמורת - Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) is a 2007 Israeli film directed by Eran Kolirin.

The Band's Visit was Israel's original Foreign Language Film submission for the 80th Academy Awards, but was rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences because it contained over 50% English dialogue. Thus, Israel sent Beaufort instead; Beaufort was finally included in the five final nominees. 'Band's Visit' won eight Israeli Ophir Prizes awarded by the Israeli Film Academy.

The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, consisting of eight men, arrive in Israel from Egypt. They have been booked by an Arab cultural center in Petah Tikva, but through a miscommunication (Arabic has no "p" sound, and regularly replaces it with "b"), the band takes a bus to Beit Hatikva, a fictional town in the middle of the Negev Desert. There is no transportation out of the city that day, and there are no hotels for them to spend the night in. The band members dine at a small restaurant where the owner, Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) invites them to stay the night at her apartment, at her friends' apartment, and in the restaurant. That night challenges all of the characters.

Sasson Gabai's characterization and playing of Tawfiq Zacharya was hailed by the critics, who described him as "an actor of real skill, and an artist capable of the deepest understanding of the human condition." During the Israeli Film Academy Awards Ceremony in September 2007, Saleh Bakri, "the band's handsome young trumpet player" thanked his parents and said, "I want to thank my father, who taught me to love mankind, and my mother, who taught me to bear the burden of life in this country and stand strong," he said.


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