With a hint of  Aki Kaurismaki in every scene, The Band’s Visit, Eran Kolirin’s tale of 8 Egyptian orchestra members lost in Israel, lives in a quiet place where people reign over politics. The film begins as the Alexandria Police Orchestra arrives at a bus station in hopes of getting directions and a bus that will lead them to an Arab Cultural Center where they are to perform.

3 personalities in the group begin to stand out from the beginning - the group’s leader Tewfiq Zacharya, the conductor/clarinetist Camal Abdel Azim and the young handsome violinist Haled. These three along with the rest of their group get on the wrong bus and end up in small town without much of anything, let alone an Arab Cultural Center.

From here our cast of outsiders meets some locals, Dina a cafe owner and two young men who have very different troubles both concerning women. As the day and night unfold, the orchestra and the townsfolk adjust to each other and struggle to communicate with the little English some of them know.

When I first saw the trailer for the film I was turned off a bit by how cute it looked. I have a tendency to dislike foreign films that veer into the land of quirky cute stories that deal with outsiders and romance. Luckily for me, The Band’s Visit only flirts with such cliches and instead opts for quiet moments and carefully constructed scenes and shots to let us observe the ways in which our characters interact. The little we do learn about the people on screen isn’t to serve plot, but simply to capture moments of vulnerability.

The actors tell their stories with their faces, with their eyes and they do it well. There is no real political agenda in Kolirin’s film, but watching two different cultures try to connect in the most basic of ways is a nice alternative to films that explore larger issues but leave us all feeling hopeless when it comes to how the world should work together.

I’ve posted the trailer for the film below and be sure to and learn about an awesome way larger groups of people work to communicate more effectively. again to find out how you can schedule a workshop.