An Egyptian police band stranded in the dusty boondocks of Israel yields cinematic gold in The Band's Visit, a meticulously droll and minimalist comedy from Israeli writer-director Eran Kolirin. Bad maps and worse road signs land the befuddled Egyptians in a sleepy backwater in the middle of Israel's bleak, southern desert, where the uneasy musicians spend the day interacting with the barely interested locals, and director Kolirin revels in the nuances of each deliciously awkward moment.
The approach here owes much to the deadpan, naturalistic films of Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismaki, a sort of comedy of inertia defined by an absurdly static camera, long takes, small details, understated performances and humor that stems from odd juxtapositions that subtly insinuate themselves into the proceedings. The numerous, gently skewed and carefully detailed characters are all worth watching, although the movie is anchored by just two of them: the musicians' leader, Tewfiq (Sasson Gabai), a painfully polite gentleman with a hounddog face, and the Israeli café owner who takes him under her wing (Ronit Elkabetz), a spookily self-possessed woman with a smoky/nasal voice that's half Dietrich and half Fran Drescher.
The film is mostly in English, the common language of all the characters, although everyone winds up relying on his or her native tongue (Arabic or Hebrew) for the sly, side commentaries that discreetly let us know that universalism will only get you so far. The Band's Visit puts politics on a far backburner, and messages of peace, love and understanding are also, thankfully, generally avoided as the movie's once and former adversaries bond over shared food, music, boredom and confusion.
The Band's Visit (PG-13) Stars Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, Khalifa Natour and Mad Jabarin. Opens April 25 at Tampa Theatre; Plays April 28 at Beach Theater in St. Petersburg. Call theaters to confirm. 4 stars
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2008.