The Band's Visit


I went with an eighth grade friend to see the Israeli film "The Band's Visit". I'm so excited that it actually made it out to a theater about 50 minutes from my home! When I saw the preview with my Mom last month (before we saw Persepolis), I jumped up and said "I have to see that" and I'm glad I did.

It's not a culturally American film. It doesn't have a thick plot or lots of conflict. The basic premise is simple: an Egyptian police band is stranded in nowheresville Israel for a night. The beauty of the slow-paced and gently humorous film is that in one lone evening, one lone encounter, people can meet and share music, words and kindness, and that connection can ease life's loneliness a little bit.

Linguistically, the movie was delightful too. My friend is fluent in Farsi and I know a bit of Farsi and a bit of Hebrew--and it was interesting to learn some Arabic while reading the subtitles. The code-switching among languages, the circumlocution of characters trying to communicate with one another and not knowing the words, and the use of language to both exclude and include people was apparent in many scenes. We also had fun reading the credits in both Hebrew and Arabic!

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