In the bleached white setting of the Negev Desert, the sky-blue uniforms of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra stand out. In Eran Kolirin’s “The Band’s Visit,” an Egyptian police band is on its way to perform at the Arab Cultural Center in Petah Tiqva, led by the stubbornly self-reliant Tawfiq Zakaria (Sasson Gabai). When they get lost in the fictional town of Bet Hatikva, they are forced to rely on the kindness of Dina (Ronit Elkabetz), an equally self-reliant restaurant owner who, along with friends Itzik (Rubi Moschovich) and Papi (Shlomi Avraham), gives them a place to stay until the buses began running again the next morning.

It is during this night that the Arab and Jewish cultures clash in a strangely new way: Tawfiq, bound by his duties to represent the nation of Egypt, promotes a strained and civil manner among his men. Dina, not bound by the ties women face in Egyptian society, repeatedly shocks Tawfiq with her independence.

And yet, in this desolate setting, even an easygoing autonomy gets Dina nowhere: as she tells Tawfiq when he first arrives, the insignificant town is a place of “no culture at all.” On the one road that services the area, a vast emptiness the color of the sand and sky surrounds the buildings. Thus, when Simon (Khalifa Natour), Tawfiq’s second in command, begins to play his unfinished clarinet concerto, it is appropriate that an awed Itzik concludes, “Maybe this is the finish, not sad, not happy… just tons of loneliness.” Likewise, the lute, or oud, an instrument familiar from foot-stomping Middle Eastern weddings, is used in this film to create a unique soundtrack of sad, slow melodies that peter out to unresolved endings. The theme song, “Kol Shai’ Helo”, or “Everything Beautiful,” speaks of a romanticized image of a lover that is unmatched in real life, serving to cast the dreams of the small-town people and the bankrupt band in a light that suggests they will never be fulfilled.

As the night winds on and Tawfiq finds himself out on the town with Dina transformed in a red dress, the cast begins to show their skill through one tense and awkward scene after another. Moschovich finds the perfect balance between Itzik’s desire to befriend Simon and please his wife by staying distant. Alongside him, Natour convincingly struggles with his desire to be more than second to Tawfiq, and yet find a way to remain dutifully loyal to the man he has played with for twenty-five years. Two more unlikely friends, the disheveled Papi and dashing violinist Khaled (Saleh Bakri) lighten the mood with a hilarious scene, in which Khaled uses Papi’s body to act out how to woo the gloomy girl sitting on the other side of him at a deserted roller disco. Gabai and Elkabetz, an amusing pair, have certainly earned their places as leading Israeli actors. While their developing friendship seems a bit hasty, nothing is inauthentic about Elkabetz’s daring sexuality nor about Gabai’s stodgy exterior that masks the pain of losing all else in his life but his music.

“The Band’s Visit” indeed walks a thin tightrope; while examining how cultural differences can strain relationships, it avoids political issues and never confronts the cultural question openly. The film’s individuality lies in its ability to convey the tension through the characters: their body language and social situations say all that their dialogue doesn’t. The setting, however is far from neutral: director Eran Kolirin manages to match a minimalist soundtrack to the overwhelmingly deserted Bet Hatikva. And yet in its exploration of the human heart, and how desperate loneliness can make it, “The Band’s Visit” hits upon a tone so universal that it unites, temporarily, Arabs and Israelis in their romantic and creative frustrations.

The Band’s Visit
Directed by Eran Kolirin
July-August Productions
87 minutes
2007