The Band's Visit

It's amazing how the briefest, even most improbable of plots can make a great movie, story, or book, The Band's Visit being an example A group of Egyptian musicians are stranded in Israel, with no place to go, nothing to do. The landscape of this part of Israel is bleak, almost apocalyptic with nothing to redeem the town except the unexpected hospitality of the people. This hospitality is best represented by the female lead, an attractive divorcee who happens to road what looks like to be a roadside restaurant. The band ends up at her doorstep, and after a few miss steps, she and the two loiters offer to the put up the band at there homes. Thus, begins an unlikely friendship between two lost tribes, one Israeli, the other Egyptian. There is little or not animosity nor prejudice towards each other, which might be the only unreal aspect of the film. The center is the somewhat formal, dour bandleader, a bit of a martinet yet touching. He and the only women in the film develop a relationship, mostly because she is so outgoing, which breaks down his formal, mannered way. Slowly, we and she get to know him, somewhat like peeling an orange. Nothing much happens though there is always the possibility of something sexual because of her uninhibited informal ways. Part of the humor results from her liberated manner which contrasts with the conductors discomfort with her openness, though he never seems critical, just uncomfortable. They walk, go to a restaurant, talk in a cement park, return home, and part. The other band members have similar experiences, ones that start out uncomfortable, but the barriers slowly fall as the couple with marital problems listen to the musician who has written part of a song. He plays it for them, breaking the ice. Little of consequence happens with the exceptions of small details, an Egyptian helping an Israeli to overcome his shyness, a musician touching a baby's hand, the conductor tolerating his youngest musicians ways. It ends with the band leaving the town the next morning, and we last see they performing, we assume in another Israeli town, as the mild mannered conductor ends up being the song leader of the Alexandrian Police Band. It's a charming movie, with wonderful performances, especially by the two leading characters.